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Don’t miss my other WW: commentary on life

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Dave Duffield is a very savvy guy. The serial entrepreneur with multiple successes under his belt is doing it again; Workday, his latest company is on a best places to work list.

You may remember Dave’s last company PeopleSoft (acquired by Oracle in a hostile takeover), which regularly made similar lists.

So what does Dave do that keeps his companies top rated? You can find the answers here,

“The Workday Experience is the combination of everything that’s unique about Workday: our culture, our core values, our company meetings, our Development “Show and Tell” happy hours, our soccer team, our recognition programs, but most importantly it’s our people. It’s everything that makes us different from your average employer, and everything that makes Workday a great place to spend a workday.”

I especially liked the list of cultural values to which they DON’T subscribe:

• Bureaucracy
• Top-down decision making
• Corporate politics
• Unnecessary organizational structure and hierarchy
• “Kissing up” and “slapping down”
• Boredom
• Cutthroat, shark-like business dealings

Take a few minutes to read the Core Values and Culture info and see how many you already embrace at your company and how many you can add.

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“The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects the wind; the realist adjusts the sails” — Anonymous

I love this quote and would love to know who really said it.

I’ve been telling people for years that no matter how much they want to change something and how hard they’re willing to work to do it they still need to deal with the reality of now.

There are many things that I disagree with or plain don’t like in the world I inhabit, but I have no magic wand to wave to change them, nor do I have the energy to fight for all of them.

I choose my battles and work to change the ones that are most important to my MAP.

I teach myself to function within the existing reality because railing against them merely wastes my energy, while ignoring the important (to me) ones offends my psyche.

How do you handle your world?

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Friday I wrote that age-neutral, fear-related information control is the greatest barrier to the spread of social media tools.

Today I read an interesting post by Hutch Carpenter suggesting that companies create a new position, Social Media Manager, to shepherd, not ramrod, the adoption of SM tools.

Hutch says that “The successful social media manager will be someone who can engage a wide variety of personality types. Who can handle a variety of viewpoints.”

I would add that the person should also have strong shrink-type skills to deal with MAP-based resistance.

With that one addition I think Hutch has hit on good idea, one I hope companies will jump on—or at least cautiously climb aboard.

Do you think that a social media manager makes sense?

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Kelly, our editor, is always dreaming stuff up to keep things interesting here at the Biz Channel. She runs lots of contests and challenges for us and this month’s is a doozy.

Kelly said, “I want you to do take a chance on your blog, risk doing something different. For example, Colleen Coplick has changed the header on BuzzNetworker for a completely different feel. (It’s fabulous! Check it out.) What are you doing to think out of the box?“

Since I earn my living helping managers think outside the box it should be a snap for me to take Leadership Turn out of its box. Right?

Well, sort of. I knew what I wanted to do, in fact, shortly after I took over Leadership Turn I wrote Stop abusing the L word and at the end suggested a reality game called So you think you can lead…

I knew it would be popular and the technology to produce it on the web is easily available, but organizing it, let alone using that technology, scares me silly. (I’m a Luddite wannabe.)

But fear shouldn’t stop you, there’s always a way around it. My solution is to recruit a volunteer staff to produce a web TV reality show. I’m going to be actively recruiting, but would love volunteers from my readership.

Here’s what you do.

Read the description in my earlier post and send your thoughts and/or what role(s) can you play in the production company. Here are the areas I think are needed, but I’m sure the list is incomplete, so don’t hesitate to add to it.

• Tech wizards who know how to do the web thing.
• Talking heads to emcee the show.
• Promotional gurus.
• Project managers to keep us organized (You don’t want me in that role!)
• Additional leadership gurus for various reasons.
• Anybody who thinks it sounds like fun!

As for me, I’m producer, recruiter and monitor-washer:)

I’m also gathering prizes for the contest and thank you gifts for the volunteers—leadership books, t-shirts, etc.—so if you have stuff you’d like to contribute please get in touch.

Email me at miki@RampUpSolutions.com, Subject: leadership reality show.

If you’d like to talk about it you can always call me at 866.265.7267.
If you reach my voice mail be sure to speak distinctly,
especially your phone number, because my hearing isn’t great.

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“No man will ever make a great leader who wants to do it all by himself or to get all the credit for doing it” — Andrew Carnegie (Ain’t that the truth!)

“You don’t have to hold a position in order to be a leader.” — Anthony J D’Angelo (Nor does holding a position make you one.)

“I’ve got to follow them, I’m their leader” — Alexandre Ledru-Rollin (You’d think this attitude would be more common considering it’s been around for more than four thousand years.)

What’s your favorite leadership quote?

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After all this talk about the need for managers to possess strong leadership traits, I have another question for you.

According to Warren Bennis’ list, a leader

• innovates;
• is an original;
• develops;
• focuses on people;
• inspires;
• investigates reality;
• long-range perspective;
• asks what and why;
• eye on the horizon;
• originates;
• challenges the status quo;
• is his own person;
• does the right thing.

What percentage of these traits is possessed by the people you see who are termed leaders?

“Influence” has become the hallmark of leadership. What percentage of these traits is possessed by those around you who influence?

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This is a summing up in a series discussing whether Warren Bennis’ 13 differences between leaders and managers still holds in light of today’s modern workforce.

In a comment on the prequel to this series Phil Gerbyshak said, “I agree wholeheartedly that great managers have BOTH qualities…though I know plenty of average managers who don’t have either. I’d like it required that managers have at least one half of Bennis’ qualities in order to lead a team. Is that too much to strive for?”

On day one Nii said, “Regarding the differences between a manager and a leader, I believe that the gap is closing between the two. In today’s global and technologically advanced world, managers still need to have the leadership qualities to succeed. They need to be able to take risks, inspire, innovate and challenge conventional thinking. Otherwise, they will be history.”

Day four Fred commented, “I believe to be a successful manager in today’s new work environment managers must posses the skills to be effective leaders and coaches in team oriented “open door” environments. Young employees entering the work force from High School or College do not possess the same work ethics of baby boomer’s. If managers attempt to train this new work force using the same tactics as we did in the past retention will suffer greatly. It is truly a kinder and gentler world we live in.”

I’m in passionate agreement with the consensus that managers need to marshal many so-called leadership skills if they plan to succeed today.

In a world where multiple job changes are both easy and acceptable the currency that buys loyalty isn’t money, rather it’s achieved by creating an environment that stimulates and satisfies each individual’s needs.

Finally, in a sister post over at Slacker Manager Nick McCormick says, “Too much is made of the difference between managers and leaders. I think we do it to make ourselves seem more important. “I’m a leader, not a lowly manager!””

Amen, Nick. While management is what you do, leadership is the way you think. Great management is composed of equal parts leadership and accountability. True leaders are proclaimed as such by those around them, not by themselves.

The best way to find success is to work constantly at incorporating as many to Bennis’ 26 traits as possible into your skillset and your MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™) and stop worrying about what you’re called.

What are your thoughts?

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Image credit: Sam UL

Yesterday, I wondered if the adoption of social media tools would parallel the spread, or lack thereof, of telecommuting and asked, “Is the problem truly generational? Age-related? A function of company size? Corporate culture?”

I believe that fear is the underlying, driving force behind not being willing to share, which, in turn, is the number one barrier to widespread use of social media tools.

People who fear often seek an antidote that doesn’t require them to change.

They see the antidote as power.

The source of power is control.

The only things worth controlling are money and information.

Money speaks for itself, whereas people at all levels, not just managers, alleviate their fear by finding ways to control the flow of information and they do this with little personal effort and at no perceived cost to themselves.

But fear is like a cancer in MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™) and will continue to grow unless addressed directly.

It may seem more difficult to make changes to your MAP, but the end result of changing it is far more valuable and lasting then the short-term fix offered by power—which is ethereal at best and imaginary at worst.

I can help if you or someone you know is dealing with fear and wants a lasting solution, feel free to call me at 866.265.7267