It’s not my fault that this post is so late. After all that talk about procrastination I thought it was about time that I knocked a few of the repeater items off the list for awhile—stuff like vacuuming, dusting, etc. Egad, I actually fixed my pants—not because I mentioned it yesterday, but because it got cold.These were supposed to be food for Sunday thought, so you’ll have to find some other time to mull on them.

• When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as thought you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn. –Harriet Beecher Stowe

• A woman is like a tea bag—you never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water. –Eleanor Roosevelt

What is the favorite quote that keeps you going?

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Jim Gordon at BossHatch and I are competing for the procrastination crown and it started me thinking (always a dangerous event). I realized that, assuming you accept our premise that procrastination doesn’t equate to irresponsibility, i.e., deadlines are met and commitments are honored, there are two kinds of procrastination:

Finite procrastination involves putting a project off as long as possible before getting it done.

Infinite procrastination is pure mañana, meaning an unspecified future time.

We both excel at the first, but I still believe that I trump Jim on the second.

• It was more than six months between noticing that the stabilizing rubber washers on the toilet seat were worn out and the seat was wiggly and spending the five minutes it took to change them. The impetus to do it came when the seat almost slid off.
• My favorite winter pants have been sitting on the sewing machine waiting to be mended (about a 20 minute job) for a couple of months. They’re on the to-do list for the weekend—as they have been for the last eight.
• The new slacks I bought last spring are still waiting to be altered.
• There are at least five items I was given over the last six years that are waiting to be hung (about a 30 minute task).
• I have seed packets bought when I moved here (2003) that I really do plan to plant this spring. I doubt that the seeds from my San Mateo move in 2000 will grow, but I might try them anyway.
• They go with the six bags of mulch also bought in 2003—does mulch have an expiration date?
• I have a new HP Officejet still in its box, since I haven’t needed to print or fax—yet.

The list is endless, but you get the idea.

I once bought a book on procrastination, but tossed it. I think it had six chapters, the first three telling you how to know if you were a procrastinator, the next two telling you why you procrastinated and the last one saying that you should stop. Duh.

What are some of your infinite procrastinations?

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Culture stems from one of two basic MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™) stances and managers at all levels espouse either one or the other—not a little of each because they are polar opposites.

• People are intelligent, motivated, and genuinely want to support the company in achieving its objectives.

This belief creates a culture that is highly productive, where people grow, thrive, and stay.

• People are incompetent, don’t care, and, will screw up if you give them a chance.

This belief creates a culture of fear, micro-management, low productivity, and high turnover.

If asked publicly, CEOs and managers will usually claim allegiance to principle number one—rarely is anybody as candid as ‘Chainsaw’ Al Dunlap, who is a number two guy all the way.

Some companies try and fake their culture, talking about how great it is in the media and during candidate interviews, but for today’s workforce what they see and hear better be what they get, or they’ll be gone.

Which kind of MAP do you work for?

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Background: Jim Gordon, who writes BossHatch, is a twenty-something who actually enjoys talking on the phone (I love talking on the phone:) and I really enjoy our conversations. I also love Jim since he recently took pity on me and kindly designed a new logo for Leadership Turn (launching soon—I hope).

Jim and I were having one of our ‘call me about X’ conversations that end up covering at least a dozen other topics. (Hey, we’re both interesting people.) In passing Jim said that he procrastinated and I said that in comparison to me he was a rank amateur.

We argued it a bit and I said I was going to write it about it, yet with no deadline I thought I’d do it next week. But Mr. Non-procrastinator did his today, so here I am doing mine for tomorrow, so we can link and do good things for our traffic.

First, I agree with Jim about the difference between procrastination and irresponsibility—my solution is to avoid as many commitments and deadlines as possible—a talent I’ve honed for years and at which I’m very good.

The most hilarious part of Jim’s post was when he said, “When talking to Miki, she mentioned her technique of writing everything a day (or even a week) in advance. As incredibly organized and efficient that method seems – writing articles at the last second just seems like the right thing to do – it feels natural.”

It was so funny I sent it to my sister and got back a note that said, “Miki and organized is an oxymoron.” (My big sister is the organized one.)

It was a misunderstanding. It’s Kelly and Bob who’ve been talking about how doing extra posts ahead makes it easier to meet b5’s contractual requirements their when they get busy. I’ve never been organized enough to write that far ahead.

I only recently managed to start writing tomorrow’s post today—mainly because I found that having it go live at 6 AM EST instead of 3 PM (I’m on the west coast) increased my paycheck, which motivates me.

I lived for 23 years in San Francisco, then three in San Mateo and I’ve been here nearly four years and still have some stuff that that’s never been unpacked or used. I like it too much to get rid of it and one of these days…

So, who wins the procrastination crown, Jim or I?

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I was fooling around with Google last night, reading about equine-guided leadership (leadership a la the Horse Whisperer) and plugged in “different kinds of leadership training” to see what would turn up. That search term yielded 5,600,000 results, whereas “how to write a resume” yielded only 1,200,000. Somehow, I expected the opposite results.

With so many flavors of leadership training and so many delivery methods you would think that our corporations, country and world would be awash in leaders.

Nope. One needs only to look around to see that’s an erroneous assumption.

I see many ‘leaders in the instance’ among ordinary people, but it seems as if there are fewer and fewer as the scope enlarges and the need becomes more urgent.

To paraphrase an old song, Where have all the leaders gone, long time passing…?

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It’s a no-brainer.

Retention improves the bottom line and turnover is costly, not just the obvious costs—ads, recruiters, interviewing time—but the indirect ones—slipped schedules, delayed launches, poor morale.

To retain your people—no matter the size of your company, liberal pay policy, generosity of benefits or value of the stock options, or the lack of them—you need to posses a culture that makes people want to join and stay.

It’s that simple.

It’s not very scientific, but far beyond the product, the job, and the benefits; it’s the people and the culture that create the desire in a candidate to say ‘Yes!’ to the offer. And when fundamental changes in the culture occur people say yes again…only then it’s to headhunters and recruiters.

So, if it’s culture that keeps them, where does it come from?

Culture is a reflection of the MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™) of the CEO.

It’s not created in a brainstorming session, although a desired culture might be discussed. Even then, if the CEO doesn’t truly support it, it’ll be a corporate non-event. Even cultures famous for ideas percolating up from its employees need the backing of the CEO in order to function.

Exceptions (both good and bad) do happen, especially as companies grow. Subcultures can flourish under a specific manager, but when that manager leaves, and the culture changes, the whole group often turns over within a few months.

Where did you find your favorite culture?

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Would you hire her if you needed a lawyer?

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So many ways to stay in touch—email, instant messages, Twitter, Crack…I mean Blackberries, Skype, voice mail—and so many ways to stick your metaphorical foot in your oh-so-real mouth.What’s the key to good communication? What can you do to put a smile on people’s faces the minute they realize that the message is from you?

Just think IBCF.

Identity – identify yourself using both first and last name and affiliation if applicable. If you want them to call leave only one phone number. If your scheduling is absolutely necessary give the broadest possible window.

Brevity – Know what information you need to impart and do so with as little extraneous stuff as possible. Use notes.

Clarity – Whether you’re writing or talking think through your purpose and exactly what you want to accomplish before initiating contact.

Filter – Always ask yourself if you were receiving it, would the message make you smile or grind your teeth. Edit accordingly.

How do you know you’re doing it right? By the responses you get when you start practicing IBCF.

What do you do to leave improve message response?

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Chip Conley is CEO of Joie de Vivre Hospitality, the third-largest boutique hotel chain in the country. When his company was hit hard by the dot com crash Conley eliminated his own salary with no fanfare or announcement—he just stopped taking it.The situation got much worse after September 11, so Conley convinced his senior staff to take to take 10% pay cuts and froze all salaries, rather than lay off the rank and file.

In addition, Conley and his investors ponied up extra cash 22 times over the next few years to keep the hotels open and to meet payroll. Conley himself took out a second mortgage on his home and cashed out his retirement plans to help infuse cash into the business.

While a tough call, and not a popular one at first with his investors, Conley feels his decision was the right one. He kept the senior team intact—not a single senior manager left—and had to make virtually no layoffs, he says. Today, Joie de Vivre has annual revenues of more than $200 million, triple what they were in 2001.

Why? What made this CEO fly in the face of the normal approach as well as his own investors?

Joie de Vivre was known for its unique customer experience and gracious, service-minded employees. That, Conley believed, was the byproduct of the corporate culture he’d worked for years to develop. Known for its cushy benefits—Joie de Vivre offered sabbaticals for salaried employees every three years and English classes for its largely immigrant back-of-the-house hotel staff—the company had very low turnover. Its loyal workforce was its competitive advantage. Cutting costs and laying people off “would gut our culture,” Conley knew.

Best of all, Conley believes, the culture he’d built wasn’t poisoned by dread, anxiety, and alarm. “Companies have natural fear ripples,” he says. “In really rough times, they get to be big tsunamis. One person’s fear and dissatisfaction and discomfort becomes palpable to the person next to them, and then it just reverberates.”

There you have it. A CEO who truly walks his talk, recognizes the true source of his profits, and is willing to put his money where his mouth is.

Read the full article here. And see the book that came as a result of his experience.

How important do you think culture is to corporate success?

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