I had lunch with a guy friend this week and I almost threw my margarita at him, except that would be a waste of a good drink. Here’s what happened.

March is Women’s History Month and we had been talking about various women who had been written up in one place or another. “Rich” mentioned several he found very impressive; I asked if he ad ever read anything about Maya Angelou, because I like the way her mind works and she is wise.

Rich said he didn’t read poetry; he also reminded me that he wasn’t into sentimental stuff.

And that’s when I thought about throwing my drink, but my self-control held and instead I told him he was an idiot and to read today’s post.

Maya Angelou has a tough, practical side and I freely admit I connect with it more easily than what Rich calls the ‘sentimental stuff’—but above all, the woman is wise and it is that wisdom which draws people in and teaches almost anything you want to learn.

So, Rich, in honor of you and Women’s History Month read these and recognize real wisdom from a woman who can make words sing.

In these days of 24/7, totally wired living it’s important to take these words to heart, Making a living is not the same thing as making a life.

Someplace back in the Seventies the idea that life was a series of challenges that needed to be overcome took hold. I never could stand that attitude; my own approach is better summed up in Angelou’s words, You shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw some things back…

Maya Angelou is a firm believer in the power of MAP, although she’s probably never heard of it; but I know it’s true because she said, If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.

That’s right, most of the time we try to change what’s outside and forget to change what’s inside, but, as this wise lady tells us, Nothing will work unless you do.

Even for Rich I can’t leave out two of Angelou’s statements that are deep life lessons; absorb them into your MAP and I can guarantee you will reap the rewards long after you’ve forgotten the source.

The first to remember is this, People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

And finally, real wisdom, the kind you don’t hear very often, Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

I wish you many breathless moments in your life.

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I have no idea if George Orwell’s Animal Farm is still required reading, but it should be. In it is one of the most brilliant bits of insight on the human condition ever written; one that is as applicable now as when it was written and will continue to be as long as humans exist. “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.”

Many of the quotes you find from Orwell are political, and I skipped those and looked instead for those that I thought applied to the workplace.

If you’re old enough to have watched a few generations grow to adult status you’ll recognize the truth in these words, “Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.” And Orwell said that before the Millennials were even gleams in their grandfathers’ eyes.

In business there is much talk about the importance of vision and how it must be communicated effectively, so that everyone understands. Orwell said, “But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” In hindsight, you can see how these feed off each other over and over corrupting the actions that result from the thought and the language.

That kind of corruption can be stopped in its tracks by following another Orwell recommendation, “Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious.”

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Today is Valentine Day and I sincerely hope that you have better things planned than reading blogs—even mine.

Do you believe in love at first sight? I think that if one is going to be honest the looks exchanged by strangers across a crowded room are more likely to be lust, than love at first glance.

Thousands of years ago Buddha said, “Of all the worldly passions, lust is the most intense. All other worldly passions seem to follow in its train;” whereas Elizabeth Hurley puts a far more modern spin on it, “A bit of lusting after someone does wonders for you and is good for your skin.”

Lust can rest in one’s mind and never be acted upon, but, if action is preferred, it is wise to first ponder the words of John Barrymore, “Sex: the thing that takes up the least amount of time and causes the most amount of trouble.”

If that doesn’t dampen desire, then—man or woman—heed Shakespeare’s warning in Macbeth: “Alcohol provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance.”

The thing about lust and sex is that they are both short-lived, although a lot of fun while they’re happening.

But, as Joanne Woodward points out, “Sexiness wears thin after a while and beauty fades, but to be married to a man who makes you laugh every day, ah, now that’s a real treat.”

And that brings us to love—about which millions of words have been spoken, not to mention written.

Love is quirky and difficult to define, but Roy Croft offers a bit of wisdom that makes a great deal of sense, “I love you not because of who you are, but because of who I am when I am with you.”

Anon has a bit of wisdom to offer up that would improve life on all levels is we would just follow it, “Laugh as much as you breathe and love as long as you live.”

But what of intimacy?

Barbara Cartland, who certainly knows all about these topics (do you think she does her own research?) says, “Among men, sex sometimes results in intimacy; among women, intimacy sometimes results in sex.”

However, true as that is, it is Thomas More who really understands the road to real intimacy, “Romantic love is an illusion. Most of us discover this truth at the end of a love affair or else when the sweet emotions of love lead us into marriage and then turn down their flames.”

Have a wonderful day. Spread love lavishly throughout your world and it will come back to you as a tsunami.

Image credit: jmjvicente on sxc.hu

Today is Super Bowl XLIV, so I thought it only appropriate to offer up some quotes relevant to more than just football—in other words, super quotes.

As you know, sports are often a metaphor for business and other parts of life.

I agree with Knute Rockne’s comment that “one man practicing sportsmanship is far better than fifty preaching it,” only I’d apply it to “leadership.”

Jock Sutherland said, “Speed is not your fastest, but your slowest man. No back can run faster than his interference.” This harks back to the weakest link theory and is true in business and in life.

Darrell Royal’s words are as true for entrepreneurs and they are for any sport, “The only place you can win a football game is on the field, the only place you can lose it is in your hearts.”

I thought it would be nice to end on a lighter vein.

Small errors can make your team focus too much on the words and not enough on their meaning as Bill Peterson should have realized when, while giving a pep talk, he said, “Men, I want you just thinking of one word all season. One word and one word only: Super Bowl.”

Then there are the questions asked in all seriousness, only to bring forth hilarious laughter or shocked silence; as these two examples show.

Before Super Bowl XVIII, Julie Brown asked Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith, “What are you going to wear in the game on Sunday?”

Then there was the reporter who didn’t just put his foot in his mouth, but his entire leg when he asked

Washington Redskins quarterback Doug Williams, “How long have you been a black quarterback?” (Super Bowl XXII)

Sadly, while the questions were preserved, the responses were not.

Finally, there is Duane Thomas’ question, the one could have been asked every year for the last 44, “If it’s the ultimate game, how come they’re playing it again next year?”

Only one thing left to say—GO SAINTS!

Image credit: scott*eric on flickr

Bob Sutton is Professor of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford and a Professor of Organizational Behavior, by courtesy, at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, but he is best known to the majority of people as the author of The No Asshole Rule.

He is also a genuinely nice guy, has a prominent email link on his blog and actually responds when you write him.

The blog is called Work Matters and it’s one of those ‘if you read nothing else…’ things. In the left column Bob has listed “15 things I believe” and my favorites form today’s quotes along with links for context.

Which ones would you choose?

Getting a little power can turn you into an insensitive self-centered jerk.

The best test of a person’s character is how he or she treats those with less power.

The best single question for testing an organization’s character is: What happens when people make mistakes?

Saying smart things and giving smart answers are important. Learning to listen to others and to ask smart questions is more important.

Image credit: Stanford Report

Opinions are what set us apart from other animals that deal solely in reality or, as some wag said many decades ago, “Opinions are like assholes, everybody’s got one!”

Of course, when opinions differ, obviously, it’s the other person who is the asshole.

Oscar Wilde hit the nail on the head when he said, “One can give a really unbiased opinion only about things that do not interest one.” You can’t get away from the fact that caring means bias.

Most of us spend (waste?) a great deal of time and energy in an effort to positively influence others opinions of us; instead we would be better off to remember the words of Olin Miller, “We probably wouldn’t worry about what people think of us if we could know how seldom they do.”

But if you are one of those who worry Quentin Crisp would not only understand, but applaud the effort, “The very purpose of existence is to reconcile the glowing opinion we hold of ourselves with the appalling things that other people think about us.”

As one listens to opinions it is wise to remember the words of E. B. White, “Prejudice is a great time saver. You can form opinions without having to get the facts.” And that seems to be the most prevalent approach these days.

When ‘everybody says…’ is used to support an opinion it is well to remember Bertrand Russell’ comment, “The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed, in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a wide-spread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible”

That’s all for today, but I’ll leave you with the words of James Russell Lowell to ponder and embrace, “The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions.”

Image credit: Matt From London on flickr

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

Many of this week’s posts will revolve around culture, so it seemed apropos to start the week with some interesting views on culture.

Louis V. Gerstner, former CEO IBM, says, “The thing I have learned at IBM is that culture is everything.”

Many experts are coming to that realization—decades after the average employee figured it out.

They didn’t use that term 30 years ago when I was a recruiter, but candidates talked about wanting to work where they “felt comfortable” and “fit in;” where they were listened to and were happy.

Edgar Schein, a professor at MIT Sloan School of Management, says, “The only thing of real importance that leaders do is to create and manage culture.” “If you do not manage culture, it manages you, and you may not even be aware of the extent to which this is happening.”

Robert Mintz said, “The crimes alleged at Enron were not the acts of a few greedy senior executives, but truly was an indictment of almost the entire corporate culture.” Of course, it was those same greedy execs who fostered that culture.

Jane Howard said, “We believe it’s our responsibility to create a unique corporate culture. If we do that well, we believe we’ll have enthusiastic employees. If we have enthusiastic employees, we’ll have loyal customers, and if we have loyal customers, we’ll have a sustainable business.”

Shades of Tony Hsieh, who built a culture so powerful that other execs pay him to learn how to implement something similar in their companies; “Our No. 1 priority is the company culture. Our whole belief is that if we get the culture right, then everything else, including the customer service, will fall into place.”

Zappos is a long way from fast food, which is often considered the bottom of the cultural heap, but many execs in that industry are hyper aware of culture’s effect. As David A. Brandon, CEO of Domino’s Pizza said, “You can’t overcome a bad culture by paying people a few bucks more,” something that management ought to remember.

Finally, research from Harvard Business School’s John Kotter & James Heskett found that culture has a major effect of the bottom line, “We found that firms with cultures that emphasized all the key managerial constituencies (customers, stockholders, and employees) and leadership from managers at all levels outperformed firms that did not have those cultural traits by a huge margin.”

Image credit: DonFrance-photos on flickr

I love mondegreens and had the same reaction when I read an article about palindromes.

A palindrome is a word or phrase that is a mirror image of itself.

Numbers and dates, when they are written month-date-year, can do the same thing and that’s where it gets really interesting.

Saturday was a palindrome, 01/02/2010; the previous one occurred 10/02/2001 and before that?

“The amazing thing is, the one before that was Aug. 31, 1380 or 08-31-1380,” said Aziz Inan, a math puzzle enthusiast. “That was 620 years ago.”

(Here’s a link to Inan’s original article.)

Palindromes are far less frequent than the blue moon that occurred this New Year’s eve.

How infrequent?

“We have 12 palindrome dates this century; the rest of the world has 29,” he said. “Our 12 all will occur on the second day of the month. Theirs all occur in February.”

The U of Portland prof doesn’t limit this sort of thing to numbers. Take his name…
Print AZIZ in all capital letters; turn each Z on its side, and then swap the vowels. The result? His last name, INAN.

Now I have a suggestion for you. Share the articles with your kids in an age appropriate way, not just numbers, but words. Then play together with family birth dates, names, etc.—not as a lesson, but as fun.

As Inan says, it’s a great way to get kids interested in math and words.

Image credit: Aziz Inan