Last fall I wrote that the prevalence of bullying, especially in the workplace, was giving rise to an anti bullying industry and I’ve seen nothing to change my mind about that.

I recently learned that my post was taken by at lease one person to mean that I didn’t believe workplace bullying was real and I want to state categorically that it is very real and way too prevalent.

I’ve seen abusive managers and cultures in action up close all my working life, especially since I returned to headhunting in the late Seventies.

Whether you call it abuse or bullying, it’s out of the closet and getting more and more media attention, which is good.

I learned about the misinterpretation last week when I received a call from a senior manager I’ll call “Lisa.”

Lisa was looking for expert witnesses because an employee has gone to HR with claims that he is being bullied.

I immediately told her that I don’t believe I would qualify as an expert, but offered to listen to the story. (I was very curious.)

Long story short, Lisa explained that her job was very difficult because the department she had recently taken over had a number of very stupid people who insisted on doing things differently from the way she knew they should be done.

She had found the only way to make them listen was to scream and constantly point out what they were doing wrong.

However, one of them was so wimpy he had filed a complaint with HR and the investigation was impeding her work, hence her desire to find experts on her side.

I asked what made her think I would side with her and she mentioned the article.

I then explained in words of on syllable that she had completely misunderstood what I wrote, that her she was bullying her people and that actions such as screaming and public belittling were not only abusive, but created a toxic culture for everybody.

As you might guess, her reaction to what I said was less than positive.

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Are you already a devotee of insanely smart hiring, in the process of changing after reading insanely stupid hiring or somewhere in-between?

Wherever your MAP is on the subject there is one thing about hiring that you need to wrap your head around if you want your career to flourish.

You can not hire stars, but you can create and maintain them.

This is as true of executives and management as it is of workers at all levels.

Think of hiring in terms of planting a garden—only these plants have feet.

You’re at the nursery and find a magnificent rose. It’s large, because it’s several years old, has dozens of blooms and buds and is exactly what you wanted for a particular space in your yard.

The directions say that the rose needs full sun to thrive, while the space in your yard only gets four to five hours of morning sun. But the rose is so gorgeous you can’t resist, convincing yourself that those hours from sunrise to 11 will be enough, so you take it home and plant it.

It seems to do OK at first, but as time goes by it gets more straggly and has fewer and fewer blooms.

Finally, you give it to your friend who plants it in a place that gets sun from early morning to sunset.

By the end of the next summer the rose is enormous, covered in blooms and has sprouted three new canes.

One of the things that insanely smart hiring does is ensure that people are planted where they will flourish, whether they are already thriving or are leaving an inhospitable environment.

I said earlier that people are like plants with feet. Abuse a plant, whether intentionally or through neglect, and it will wither and eventually die; abuse your people and sooner or later they will walk.

Insanely smart hiring also gives you a giant edge whether the people market is hot or cold.

By knowing exactly what you need, your culture, management style and the environment you have to offer you are in a position to find hidden and unpolished jewels, as well as those that have lost their luster by being in the wrong place. (Pardon the mixed metaphors. Ed)

These are often candidates that other managers pass on, but who will become your stars—stars with no interest in seeking out something else.

They recognize insanely smart opportunities when they see them.

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Yesterday we looked at insanely stupid hiring and I said we would explore the alternatives today.

Every time a manager tells me that staffing gets in the way of their “real work” it makes me crazy. For decades I’ve heard this same stupid statement from various managers, from CEO to team leaders, and none of them was stupid.

Insanely smart (or stupid) hiring starts with individual MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™).

Here is the basic attitude of insanely smart managers, voiced decades ago by Terry Dial, who eventually became vice chairman of Business Banking at Wells Fargo.

“People are 90% of our costs as well as the key to customer service and satisfaction. The only thing that should take priority over hiring a new employee is keeping a current one.”

Overview of insanely smart hiring

1. Hire people to be part of the team. In other words, people who share your values, will support your culture, are fascinated with your product and believe in your company.
2. Take time to define what you really need. In other words, the right person for the right job at the right time and for the right reasons.
3. What you see may not be what you get. In other words, commit the time needed to interview thoroughly.
4. Performance isn’t always portable. In other words, be sure you can supply the management and environment in which the candidate can flourish.

How to practice insanely smart hiring

• Insanely smart mangers know that no matter what else they have to do it is people, acquiring them, motivating them and retaining them, that is their “real work.”
• Insanely smart managers never lose sight of this basic law of managing—there is nothing a manager can do personally (to save their review) that will off-set the effect of their under or non-performing group.
• It is easier to be an insanely smart manager if you work for an insanely smart company, or at least manager, that understands there is no hiring gene and good staffing skills are learned, not born—but don’t count on it.
• Insanely smart hiring is real work that requires time, energy and commitment.
• Insanely smart mangers focus on ending up being the dumbest person in the group.
• Insanely smart managers never hire jerks, no matter how much pressure they are under.

Join me Monday when we consider how insanely smart hiring creates stars and boosts retention.

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An interesting article from Knowledge at Wharton cites several recent studies that help explain the difficulty corporations have tapping creative types for positional leadership roles.

Those individuals who expressed more creative ideas were viewed as having less, not more, leadership potential. The exception, they found, was when people were specifically told to focus on charismatic leaders. In that case, creative types fared better.

The article and associated studies should be required reading for every manager charged with hiring, whether for a so-called leadership position or team member.

Every manager wants to hire creative talent, that isn’t new, but understanding why you might pass on the very talent you need is knowledge worth having.

Creativity, also known as thinking outside the box, isn’t always a comfortable trait to have around; moreover, it requires much more effort to manage.

But make no mistake, while in today’s high stakes global markets those who color inside the lines can maintain the company for a time, it is the creatives who will take it to the next level.

It’s also worth noting that not all creative people are charismatic and those with charisma may not have a creative bone in their body.

Read the article and determine how much applies to you/your organization (team, department, company), and then decide if it’s worth changing.

As always, it’s your choice.

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Today is Valentine’s Day.

Along with showing love to the expected (romantic interest, kids, family, friends) why not show some love to those with whom you work as well as those who orbit the rest of your world.

One way to show love is to notice. As I said a couple of years ago,

“No one is expecting you to solve the problems, but you can reach out and touch just one life. If everyone over 21 did that we would be well on the way to change.”

All I can add is that we better start noticing before all the lights are turned off for good.

Now go see your friends and tell them; have a ‘noticing’ contest together with a ‘doing’ contest.

Before you can practice random acts of kindness you need to notice.

Why not give your whole world a Valentine by promising yourself to make noticing/doing a habit all year ’round?

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Ken Olsen, who, in 1986, Fortune magazine called “America’s most successful entrepreneur” has died.

That won’t mean much to many of you. In fact, many won’t recognize the name of his company, Digital Equipment Corporation, better known as DEC, or the minicomputer it built.

54 years ago Olsen used $70,000 seed money and built a company second only to IBM, with 120,000 employees working in 95 countries.

Ken Olsen may have been an autocratic manager, but his approach to people differed greatly from the norm of the time.

In Digital’s often confusing management structure, Mr. Olsen was the dominant figure who hired smart people, gave them responsibility and expected them “to perform as adults,” said Edgar Schein, who taught organizational behavior at M.I.T. and consulted with Mr. Olsen for 25 years. “Lo and behold,” he said, “they performed magnificently.”

What happened?

Olsen and DEC were brought down by the same attitude that almost killed IBM and is best summed up in Olsen’s own words.

“The personal computer will fall flat on its face in business.”

It is a lesson that entrepreneurs should learn: no matter how successful your company holding on to the present and ignoring or minimizing the changes in your markets can be a death sentence.

Olsen was ousted by his board because of that refusal to change after 35 years of success; six years later DEC was sold to Compaq (long before Compaq was acquired by HP).

There are many lessons to be learned from Olsen’s story, but one of the most important is found in his attitude towards people. Olsen always hired the smartest people possible, told them what he wanted and then got out of their way. He unequivocally believed that

“Our employees are our greatest asset.”

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In a speech to company managers, reprinted in The HP Way, Dave Packard perfectly summed up what makes Jane or Johnny run.

“People work to make a contribution and they do this best when they have a real objective, when they know what they are trying to achieve and are able to use their own capabilities to the greatest extent.”

I would add that “their own capabilities” means

• being given full information and authority to get the job done, as opposed to
• being forced to return again and again for clarification or having to constantly run to the boss to get something authorized.

The first approach is the one chosen by managers so confident and powerful that they work to hire people smarter than themselves, empower them and spend their energy developing them—knowing that they will either be promoted or leave.

The second approach is the choice of mangers who are weak and insecure.

Which are you?

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Do you manage like Microsoft?

When Microsoft, the company know for its ferocious attitude when protecting its own turf and simultaneously stomping on everyone else’s, released Kinect it unleashed a frenzy of innovative development among the great unwashed, AKA the open source community.

Rather than embracing their out-of-the-box thinking Microsoft started stomping, but when the rabble attacked, Microsoft backed down—part way.

In statements, Microsoft said it “does not condone the modification of its products” and vowed to work with law enforcement “to keep Kinect tamper-resistant.” After geek outrage spilled onto the Web, Microsoft spent the next day clarifying its position. It stressed that it objected to miscreants who might, say, use Kinect’s camera to peer into living rooms. It would not, however, sue well-intentioned tinkerers. After that peace gesture, Microsoft stopped discussing Open Kinect publicly.

Do you (or your manager) act like this?

Do you freak out when faced with innovation outside of the expected and difficult to control?

Do you threaten the instigators and/or your team to bring them back in line with your narrow vision?

Or do you cheer them on, embracing ideas that didn’t originate with you and weren’t planned, but open up new paths and even new worlds to conquer?

The world has changed and you need to change with it. Years ago someone said that Microsoft shouldn’t try and act like a scrappy startup when it was a 500 pound canary, but now that canary is merely obese.

Doctors faced the same dilemma, going from a world where their word was law to one in which patients research and demand a say in their treatment—and vote with their feet if they don’t get it.

And before you see this as an age-related problem look around. It’s not hard to find Microsoft-styled managers and doctors of all ages.

The Microsoft vs. open source is a good analogy for two different types of management MAP and you need to choose which you want to be.

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Last week Craig, a senior manager I know, referred one of his direct reports to me.

During the annual review Craig had warned “Jim” his department’s turnover was unacceptably high and that he was tying 15% of Jim’s annual bonus to his hitting the retention numbers they discussed and agreed upon during the meeting.

Jim asked Craig if the company would be willing to pay for a coach, because he was unsure exactly how to improve retention and hadn’t found books on the subject of much use.

Craig said the company wouldn’t, but he knew someone affordable and called me.

I agreed to have an exploratory conversation to be sure that we could work together and that I could help.

When I talked with Jim he said he believed that in order to do what Craig wants he needed to “get rid of more dead wood and bring on people who will jump on his ideas, aren’t afraid of hard work and understand loyalty.”

However, doing so would preclude any chance of his meeting the retention numbers, especially since, based on past experience, he would be forced to turn several of the new hires, too.

After hearing a good deal more about what he had tried that didn’t work, I explained how I work, costs, etc.,

I warned him that I’m pretty blunt and suggested he check out this blog for a window on how I think and my approaches and that we both think about it to decide whether we could create a productive relationship that would achieve what he wanted.

Jim called yesterday and the upshot is we will be working together to solve his retention problems and I have his permission to share parts of that with you over the next few months.

It should be interesting.

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Too many managers (of all ages and at all levels) tell me they are using texting, Twitter and email to manage their people. They’re even using them for performance reviews, layoffs and terminations.

When I ask why they use them I’m told some variation of ‘saves time’, ‘more immediate’, ‘modern way to manage’, ‘cool’ or the worst one, ‘lets me focus on what’s important.’

I may be a digital dinosaur, but I’m here to tell them (and you if you are on the receiving end) that that isn’t managing; it’s avoidance pure and simple.

It’s having the title while avoiding every single action required to lead a high-performing organization. It trashes careers and shows enormous disrespect for people.

In short, it’s a total copout; unfair to the team, the company and the investors.

What’s important are the people, because without the people there is no company and if there is no company you have no job.

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