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Today is the inaugural post of a new feature here at MAPping Company Success. For the foreseeable future (at least until I’m bored) Saturday will be political commentary day.

Not a day to push a particular agenda, but rather one to comment on or poke fun at whatever happens to catch my eye.

We’re barely into election season and I’m already sick of the ads. Most are a mix of the five main political ingredients,

• inflexible ideology;
• rhetoric;
• illogic;
• promises that can’t/won’t be kept; and, of course,
• out and out lies.

OK, I’m used to all that and try and take it in stride. But what I’m finding outrageous this year are the statements into which a contortionist couldn’t read any meaning, such as this one from Jonathan Fant, who is running for State Rep in my district.

And before you think this is an anti-Fant post, it isn’t, since I don’t particularly care for his incumbent opposition, either.

So here, for your erudition and amusement, is the blurb from my official Washington State Voter’s Pamphlet:

Candidate Statement

“Now more than ever, we must unite our community. The new challenges we face require a strong voice to represent the people. We can no longer afford to follow the same business structure that is in place. We need to make these changes now, before it is too late.

I am running for State Representative because I want to ensure prosperity for us now and set the foundation for future generations. I want to see positive changes for our community and make sure that everyone’s needs finally get addressed. A vote for me is a choice for a positive change.”

That’s it. 98 words that are so generic that they could be used by any candidate, for any office, at any time, representing any ideology, anywhere in the world.

At least the normal five effect???if only the dubious benefit of raised blood pressure.

What do your candidates have to say?

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Great interview and insights in an article from HBS Working Knowledge regarding gender differences in Wall Street stars. Even if you’re not a recognized star or that’s not your field I guarantee that the information will be useful.

Why? Because the things that make the difference between women’s success and male failure apply to all.

According to HBS professor Boris Groysberg, “Women tend to do better after a move for two reasons.

One is that they are more invested in external than in in-house relationships. There are four main reasons why star women maintain external focus: uneasy in-house relationships, poor mentorship, neglect by colleagues, and a vulnerable position in the labor market. External focus makes them more “portable” in terms of making a positive move, but can cause problems if they want to progress within their own organization, because you need a solid internal network and good political capital to get things done in organizations. Anyone who focuses mostly on external relationships will not have that.”

Think about it. Forgetting the star function, external focus is death on retention, guaranteeing low loyalty and high turnover.

And as to managers creating women-friendly environments, Groysberg says, “The consequence of that is when these managers leave, the female-friendly environments disappear.”

One way to make everyone a star is to encourage your people to build their external relationships while providing a culture that facilitates the in-house relationships that make people want to stay.

What do you do to give your people both?

Doing more for less. Productivity is always important, but it’s especially critical as the economy toughens.

The 40 year-old Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) is the world’s largest private network of corporations focused on improving workforce productivity.

Although i4cp requires membership to access much of its data, the Trendwatcher archives are free and loaded with useful information.

The research that caught my eye shows that “the most productive organizations furthest outstripped the average ones in four areas:

• Culture: 79% of the most productive organizations say that, to a high or very high degree, the cultures of their organizations help raise employee productivity.

• Leadership: 76% of highly productive companies said that, to a high or very high extent, leadership in their companies raises productivity.

• Employee engagement: 59% of highly productive organizations use engagement practices to a high or very high extent. Engagement means that workers are mentally and emotionally invested in their work and in contributing to their employer’s success.

• Employee health/wellness programs: Although It could be an anomaly, “People like to work for organizations that send strong signals that they care for their employees. These particular programs may be sending those signals more than most other types of initiatives do,”

How does your company rate in each of the four areas?

Your comments—priceless

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One of my colleagues was talking to me a few days ago about a student who has already contacted her before the start of the fall semester.

Normally, this is a good thing.  I have a number of students who have already contacted me for the upcoming semester.

But I am still teaching summer classes, so I have not had time to prepare syllabi for the fall yet.

Instead, I direct these students to look at the syllabus on my web page for the previous semester.  I am using the same textbooks, so I’ll be covering the material in pretty much the same order.  I don’t mind if students ask if the coming semester will be using the same textbook.

However, my colleague’s student is getting to be a pest.  She has emailed numerous times, asking all sorts of questions, and asking for word lists of key terms, a list of homework, etc.  Now, that is a bit overboard.

As faculty, we have a duty to be available for our students.  I go a step beyond that, and I am available for prospective students, too.  However, being available doesn’t mean being available 24 hours per day.

I have a lot of students.  It would be nice if I could give each one an individual mentoring.  But, that is not how it works.  I hate to tell them “no,” but sometimes that is what you need to do, in order to have time to do your job.

I have to focus on my current students, all of them.  Sometimes I have a student who takes far more of my time than others.  They are always coming by my office.  If I have the time, then I am happy to spend time with them, but not if it keeps me from helping other students, doing my own research, and doing all of the other things that I have to do.

That’s the hard part of the job:  deciding how to apportion my time among so many different things.

I spend far more time with students and prospective students than most faculty, but I still get things done.

Knowing your limits is important.

Do you know your limits when apportioning your time? (from Miki)

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Phil Gerbyshack quotes Anthony Robbins,  “There is no greatness without a passion to be great..” and asks, “Does your passion burn brightly enough others can see it, can feel it?”

Passion is a recurring theme today, whether leading, motivating or innovating; it’s important to entrepreneurs as well as those in all sizes of mature companies; to parents, politicians, non-profits and causes.

But did you ever stop to think that passion unchecked yields freely to fanaticism?

In business, fanaticism leads directly to ‘not invented here’ syndrome.

In life, fanaticism paves the road to a closed mind, one that is evidenced by fear, hate and bigotry.

Passion may drive greatness, but unbridled passion is the hallmark of the ideologue.

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Don’t miss my other WW: a light to live by

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Don’t miss my other WW: what leaders look for

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Everybody has a box.

That’s right and no matter how hard you try you’ll never really think outside it.

Heresy? No.

The idea that boxes are bad is a function of how you interpret them.

It’s not the box that matters, but its size and how you address that.

Steve Jobs’ and Steven Spielberg’s boxes are immense, far larger than most, yet they both continue to enlarge them.

And therein lays one of the secrets of a creative organization.

It’s not about encouraging your people to “think outside the box,” it’s helping each to understand their box and how to enlarge it.

Because that’s how it works.

As soon as you get outside your own box, a new one forms. Once you totally use up its content and find its sides you go outside that box, a new one forms and the process begins again.

If you work at it, this process continues throughout your life—although some never start it and some get comfortable in a certain box and retain it.

But the most wonderful thing about boxes is that it’s always your choice—within your control to make it happen.

There will always be a box, but with effort you can enlarge it enough to encompass galaxies—and even entire universes.

It’s all yours for the choosing.

Have you hugged (and enlarged) your box lately?

By Wes Ball, author of The Alpha Factor – a revolutionary new look at what really creates market dominance and self-sustaining success. Read all of Wes’ posts here.

OK, here’s the deal.

• We all know that short-term, tactical management is killing American business, right?

• We all recognize that top-level managers in publicly-held corporations are being driven crazy with external pressures from investors and stock analysts so they can’t do the “visionary leadership” job they need to do.

• Most of us have experienced the destructive effects of this corporate ADD as it filters down to the ranks of “worker bees” who are really keeping the company going, yet feel unappreciated.

• We have all seen the exodus of good people who wanted to make a difference for their employer, yet felt they were just wasting their time.

So why does it go on and on?  I even see it in privately-held companies, and it frightens me that they would want to embrace this self-destructive behavior.

I’m beginning to believe it’s an impossible problem.  So…

I’m throwing out a challenge today for anyone who can show me a publicly-held company that doesn’t have this problem.  I want to see that someone has figured out how to overcome this and has been successful at it.  I want to believe that it is possible, because I was certainly able to do it in my company – but mine was a privately-held business, so I could ignore people on the outside of my company.

Please, show me that I’m wrong.

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Today’s Business Channel buzz is about the power of networking. Networking isn’t new, although the term is recent. It’s something I’m good at doing—I harbor unbridled people curiosity—but usually hate having it done to me. Why?

Well, it’s not a lot of fun to have dozens of people at an event come up and essentially ask, “What can you do for me,” while their eyes are scanning the room looking for more likely prey and they seem to have little real interest in those who talk to them, unless they perceive value to themselves.

Obviously, not everyone is like this, but too many are!

Rather than write up yet another list of ‘how to network’ or waxing on about how valuable it is, I thought I’d mention three salient points and then offer up a link to what I consider one of the best networking resources sources available.

First, salient = basic. That’s right, and once you grasp the basics the rest are luxuries—nice to know, but not really necessary.

Second, these apply as much to on-line networking as to that done in the real world.

1. Go networking with an eye to listening, learning and helping, not talking, selling and using.
2. Pay attention to the person talking, instead of mentally cruising the room.
3. Be open to input other than what you expected or wanted.

That’s it. Practice them until they are deeply embedded in your MAP and you do them without thinking. You’ll be amazed at the difference in your results.

Finally, download or buy the best book around for doing business in a networked world—The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online! by Scott Allen and David Teten.

What are your pros and cons regarding networking?

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