I’m always looking for a way to have some fun with Leadership Turn, especially if I can involve you. Here’s what I came up with.

Every Sunday I post three off-beat quotes (6 AM, noon, and 4 PM Eastern Time) from famous people or media and you respond with another strange quote either from the same person or on a similar or connected topic—the further out or more outrageous the quote the better.

If the connection isn’t fairly obvious it’s up to you to explain it.

First up this Valentine’s week comes from the dark side. I remember reading about this in the newspaper. It showcases the absolute worst in ignorance, stupidity and politics.

“People who are raped—who are truly raped—the juices don’t flow, the body functions don’t work, and they don’t get pregnant.” —Henry Aldridge, North Carolina State Representative, in Esquire, 1996.

(After the speech the NC Legislature reduced the funds for abortions for poor women from $1.2 million to $50,000 and rewarded Aldridge by appointing him co-chair of the Committee on Human Resources, overseeing day care, services for the poor and abortion funding.)

Your turn:)

Kelly, my editor here at b5media and author of Tax Girl, pointed me in the direction of an interesting post at Law.com.Written by Harry A. Valetk, a new media and privacy attorney in New York City, it focuses on where to draw the lines regarding employer attitudes towards employees off hours use of social media.

“A 2007 Pew Internet & American Life Project study found that 60 percent of Web users aren’t concerned with how much information is available about them online. And only 4 percent had a bad experience because of embarrassing or inaccurate information posted about them online.

But what happens when these intimate details spill over into the workplace? Should our legal, off-duty, off-network online activities jeopardize our jobs? In our reputation-based economy, what are the appropriate boundaries between work and our private lives?”

He goes on to discuss current instances of the overlap, legal attitudes and what may happen down the road.

“…some states have strong protections for employees engaging in legal recreational activities off the clock,” while “California’s Labor Code protects legal off-site conduct during nonworking hours.”

There are already laws that protect from all kinds of employment discrimination, yet the discrimination persists.

I’ve written in the past (here, here and here) about the fact that what is posted in cyberspace stays in cyberspace forever—once it’s posted it never goes away.

As difficult as it is to prove that a person wasn’t hired because of skin color or age, how much more difficult will it be to prove that he wasn’t hired because the manager saw something online of which he disapproved?

Do you Google your candidates? How much does what you find influence you?

Your comments—priceless

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I appreciate this rule more and more as the years go by…

Growing older isn’t so bad when you consider the alternative

— Maurice Chevalier

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Politicians talk it — Statesmen walk it

Politicians run to win — Statesmen run to serve

Politicians are ideologues — Statesmen are open-minded

Politicians, “it’s all about me” — Statesmen, “it’s all about them”

Politicians focus on the next election — Statesmen focus on the future

What would you add to this list?

Sports has long been used as an analogy to various business practices—the best sales training film I ever saw was done by Vince Lombardi explaining how selling was akin to the plays in football. But I don’t hear as much about good business practices being used to motivate a sports team.

Mike Kavis has a great post over at ITtoolbox Blogs. Mike focused on how Giants’ coach Tom Coughlin turned around his own career and his team using best practice leadership techniques.

“He listened to the constructive criticism of his bosses and players and decided to make some changes. What he found was that his vision was not fully understood by all of the players on the team. So he formed a leadership committee made up of various players on the team who could help him clearly communicate the vision. Better yet, he let the players select the leadership team. Since the players participated in forming the leadership team, it gave them a sense of ownership in the process…”

The creation of the leadership team accomplished the following:

• Clear understanding of team’s vision
• Participation in overall strategy
• Constant feedback
• Clear communication
• Accountability
• Buy-in
• Shared goals
• Clearly defined roles and responsibilities

And a Super Bowl trophy, I might add.

In his summary of what happened, Mike says, “If you want people to change, first change yourself.” which gave me a chuckle, not because it’s inaccurate, but because it’s so true that it’s the tag line of my company—To change what they do, change how you think.

A winning team is the goal of every leader and manager in every endeavor. The winners understand the importance of putting their egos in their respective pockets in order to listen and change as needed.

The rest will continue to go their merry way, listening to no one, issuing edicts, and complaining when their people don’t buy-in or perform.

Do you buy-in to your company’s vision? Do you/your leader/manager listen?

Your comments—priceless

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I’ve written several times on the Millennials’ scorn over the unwillingness of management, AKA people over 40, to integrate Web 2.0 into the workplace.Considering all their sound and fury I found the attitudes in the article to be pretty ironic. Here are some of my favorite comments.

‘Increasingly, however, he and other young people are feeling uncomfortable about their elders encroaching on what many young adults and teens consider their technological turf.’

Of course, the article is a bit behind the times also.

‘Young people have responded, as they always have, by searching out the latest way to stay ahead in the race for technological know-how and cool. They use Twitter, which allows blogging from one’s mobile phone or BlackBerry, or Hulu.com, a site where they can download videos and TV programs. They customize their cell phones with various faceplates and ringtones.’

Good grief, every adult I know does at least one of these.

‘Gary Rudman, a California-based youth market researcher, has heard the complaints. He regularly interviews young people who think it’s ‘creepy’ when an older person — we’re talking someone they know — asks to join their social network as a ‘friend.”

‘Lauren Auster-Gussman, a freshman at Juniata College in Pennsylvania…thinks Facebook should only be used by people younger than, say, 40…’I mean, I’m in college,’ she says. ‘There are bound to be at least a few drunken pictures of me on Facebook, and I don’t need my parents’ friends seeing them.’

Makes you wonder how they’ll feel when it’s their kids calling them creepy.

Hilariously, these are the same people who berate current management as control freaks and out of touch with the connected world.

To sum up, people over 40 should embrace Web 2.0 in the workplace, but not outside and never when it comes to their kids.

Sure thing. That’s like saying Millennials should only drive to school and/or work, but never use the car otherwise.

And if you believe that I have a great deal for you on a bridge.

Are you an over 40 social media user? What do you think?

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There’s and interesting post over at The 501(C) Files recapping the light and dark sides of Bob Knight’s career.

The light – “An uncompromising figure and terrific coach whose players kept their nose clean and graduated at atypically high rates, he deserves much of the praise being given him today.”

The dark – “Knight was also a loudmouth and a bully, a coach who threw chairs, got rough with his players, and engaged in behaviors that ran fully counter to the ideals noted above…the ultimate shame is that the coach’s boorishness drowned out the considerable accomplishments of his teams and his schools.”

I think the saddest part of Knight’s legacy is that so many of the boys who played under him will become the men who manager their business teams as he managed them believing that that’s the way to win. Not all, but too many.