Once dismissed as smoke and mirrors or touchy-feely nonsense, corporate culture is not recognized as the key to success. Not just the success of the company as a whole, but sub-cultures define the success of each team as you moved down the corporate ladder.

Culture drives success more than money; culture attracts talented people and, more often than not, cultural change is responsible for their leaving.

Culture is now recognized as a necessary part of a company’s overall strategy; leaders and managers who ignore workers’ focus on culture do so at their own peril.

“Companies that will perform well will nurture the factors that make their employees feel happier and engaged at work, more connected to overall results, and more motivated to make a strong contribution,” said Eileen Habelow, PhD., Randstad’s senior vice president of organizational development. “Going forward, companies can’t ignore culture. Rather, it should be addressed as a critical component of their overall business strategy.”

No where is talk cheaper than when it comes to corporate culture. Trust and authenticity, critical to any good culture are lost when positional leaders don’t walk the cultural talk.

“You can clearly identify what makes organizations successful and what is expected, when you look at how the leadership acts and what they value. That is even more important than performance management.”

What’s important when it comes to culture? Do generations really differ in what they want in culture? Various studies describe similar desires from all age groups—the difference seems more in their patience for achieving what they want. The top craving across groups is having the flexibility to balance their life and work.

It has been long said that the new generations have different needs but I can safely say as a leading executive recruitment professional, that most candidates I’ve met over the past few years, no matter what age, have very similar personal desires and needs.

Finally, the big question that always comes up: does a focus on culture pay off? And if so, how well?

There have been multiple studies over the last decade proving a resounding ‘yes’ to the question. One of the most recent comes from Raj Sisodia, author of Firms of Endearment, who offers up compelling statistics.

The publicly traded FoE companies studied returned 750% over 10 years while the S&P overall provided a 128% return. What is even more telling is that over the last 5 years, these same companies provided their investors 205% return, when the S&P lost 13%.

Wow! If those numbers don’t get your attention your people would be wise to leave and if your boss doesn’t get it you should find one who does.

Flickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pedroelcarvalho/2812091311/

Oh, to be a teenager again and know everything.

Or twenty-something in a first job with the sure knowledge that if we were the boss everything would run perfectly.

Or able to quit when bored or annoyed because there is no mortgage, kids, spouse-or-equivalent; no responsibility for anyone else and able to move back home if necessary.

We often look back and wonder why, why we changed, what went wrong.

We blame ourselves and forget that our world changed, too.

Sometimes those changes are bad, often they are good and more often they are a just a function of shifting priorities over time.

We forget that the world itself changed and too often we minimize the effect of those external changes if they don’t hit us directly.

We tend to forget that we are no longer the same person; that who we are today not only doesn’t do the same things as our past self, but, upon close inspection, doesn’t even want to do them.

Would you really give up who you are today? Because doing so means giving up all the experiences and relationships that shaped the current you.

It seems smarter to change the specifics with which you are dissatisfied and to do so with surgical precision, after all, if your finger were broken you wouldn’t amputate your arm.

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/trainor/466111239/in/photostream/

A call I had today prompts me to repost something I wrote last year.

Choosing Your Audience

Every day we make choices and, as kids, learning to make wise ones is one on the most important things that should happen as we grow.

But it doesn’t always happen.

The great thing is that you can change and learn to make good choices at any time in your life—it is an integral part of leading yourself.

One of the most important choices anyone makes is found in the people they choose to have as part of their life.

Although I could write my own ideas of what that means, I’d like to share something I received from a friend. I can’t find who the author is, so I’ll credit the prolific Anon.

Everyone Can’t Be in Your Front Row

Life is a theater – invite your audience carefully. Not everyone is spiritually healthy and mature enough to have a front row seat in our lives. There are some people in your life that need to be loved from a distance.

It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you let go, or at least minimize your time with draining negative, incompatible, not-going-anywhere relationships/friendships/fellowships!

Observe the relationships around you. Pay attention to: Which ones lift and which ones lean? Which ones encourage and which ones discourage?

Which ones are on a path of growth uphill and which ones are going downhill?

When you leave certain people, do you feel better or feel worse? Which ones always have drama or don’t really understand, know and appreciate you and the gift that lies within you? When you seek growth, peace of mind, love and truth, the easier it will become for you to decide who gets to sit in the FRONT ROW and who should be moved to the balcony of your life.

You cannot change the people around you…but you can change the people you are around! Choose wisely the people who sit in the front row of your life.

Copy the last sentence and tape it to your monitor and the bathroom mirror; forward the post to every person you care about—not with a lecture, but with a hug; discuss it’s meaning with your kids—they are never too young to learn this.

Take a long, hard look at who sits in your front row; if you don’t want them there you don’t need to have a major confrontation, just quietly lower their priority in your life and assign them to a seat at the back—even if they have you in their front row.

I know that I’m in the front row of several people who sit in the rear of my audience, but I say nothing, because nothing would be gained. They would be deeply hurt for no reason; they have little-to-no impact on me because they are far back and where they choose to seat me is none of my business.

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26881907@N05/2755415480/

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pagedooley/4233691578/

“When we aren’t clear and specific about our expectations, upfront, we get what we get, and we don’t get upset.”

Isn’t that a great line? I recently read it in a Social Q’S column, but it should be a management mantra, with the emphasis on the first part.

Better yet, teach it to every human from kindergarten on; embed it so deeply in the thought process that it becomes second nature.

Wouldn’t you love to work for and with people who really were clear about what they expected of you?

People who took responsibility for fuzzy expectations that only hinted at what they wanted and left the interpretation of their expectations to you.

People who didn’t get upset when your interpretation didn’t match their poorly communicated thoughts.

Just think of how different your romantic relationship and friendships, not to mention the interactions with your children, would be if expectations were clearly stated.

But all that pales in comparison to the difference clearly stated expectations would make to the stress levels of your professional life.

Think how exciting and motivating it would be if you knew exactly what was expected of you on your next assignment; not only what, but why and when it was expected.

Ambiguous expectations are rarely intentional, so how do you know if you are guilty of them?

By the results over time; frequent misunderstandings are a sure sign that you need to be clearer when stating your expectations.

Another good check is to ask people to describe your expectations in their own words, but don’t be surprised if what they heard and what you thought you said bare little-to-no resemblance to each other.

Flickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zedbee/103147140/

Dear Readers,

I want to apologize for the erratic publishing last week and the missing Sunday posts.

We moved to a new server and my WordPress admin has been weird since then, with you being subjected to the end results of the weirdness.

Hopefully we have solved the public issues and I can continue the fight with the WP editor in private.

I hope it hasn’t been too annoying; if you notice further goings-on, please don’t hesitate to let me know.

Today is Leadership Development Carnival day and that is a great selection from 40 excellent bloggers on the subject of leadership in all its many guises.

Dan McCarthy is hosting this month and he wasn’t happy with my submission, although he included it with a “cleaned up” title. You guessed it; I submitted Leadership or Leadershit and Dan felt it didn’t really belong in “a family blog.” He included it anyway, with the assurance to his readers that “it’s clean.”

That’s OK, I coined the term and still believe that it perfectly sums up what happens when “I” becomes the most important thought in a leader’s mind.

Enjoy the Carnival, it’s a good one.

We’ll lead off with our next month’s Carnival host Jane Perdue, with The both/and dance of leadership posted at Get Your Leadership BIG On!

Last month’s Carnival host, Mary Jo Asmus always is worth reading. Here’s Who Can Help? posted at Mary Jo Asmus.

Wally Bock sure has been hot lately. Here’s his take on “bad attitudes”, with  The Attitude Trap posted at Three Star Leadership Blog, saying, “Addressing a bad attitude directly is a trap for you if you’re a boss. It will get you argument, denial, and withdrawal, but little or no change. Instead, ask yourself a simple question and then take action.”

Alice Snell follows up with More Human Than Capital posted at Taleo Blog – Talent Management Solutions.

Mark Stelzner commits to giving all his best stuff away! Follow the series at The HR Idea Lab posted at Inflexion Point.

I’ve been reading a lot of Tanveer Naseer lately, and just added his blog to my blogroll. Here’s Social Media and the True Meaning of Leadership | TanveerNaseer.com posted at TanveerNaseer.com.

The always reliable Art Petty gives us a dose of caffeine to start the day with Leadership Caffeine: Learning to Ask for Help posted at Management Excellence

Eric Pennington explains “why you must move forward, even if uncertainty surrounds and confounds you.”
Moving Forward In An Uncertain World posted at Epic Living – Leadership Development Career Management Training Executive Life Coaching Author.

Erik Samdahl presents Emotional Dimwits Need Not Apply posted at Productivity Blog

nissim ziv presents What are the Qualities of a Good Leader? posted at Job Interview Guide, saying, “This article will not address the issue whether or not leaders are born to lead, but rather focuses on classifying some qualities imperative to good/positive leader.”

Rob Tucker presents How to encourage others to take ownership posted at Reading About Leading, saying, “A detailed discussion of the ways in which you can help your team to take ownership.”

Gwyn Teatro presents Leadership and All That Jazz posted at You’re Not the Boss of Me, saying, “This is a look at jazz as a metaphor for good leadership, often calling for improvisation and often messy but always grounded by its core melody.”

The never boring, always provocative Bret L. Simmons gives us Power: The Heart Of Leadership | Bret L. Simmons – Positive Organizational Behavior posted at Bret L. Simmons.

Anne Perschel and Marion Chapsal team up to give us When Truth Speaks to Power?and Power Listens posted at Germane Insights, saying, “INSTIGATING CHANGE. When truth speaks and the leader acts, change happens. Be Bold. Speak your Truth.” While you’re there, take a look at the new “NOW Leadership Carnival”.

Tanmay Vora presents The Quest of Better Outcomes: Hierarchy And Process posted at QAspire – Quality, Management, Leadership & Life!.

Michael Lee Stallard presents Servant Leaders Outperform Because They Connect posted at Michael Lee Stallard.

Anna Farmery, the Leadership Development Carnival founder, presents Are you too professional! posted at The Engaging Brand.

Benjamin McCall presents Compensation, Pay Raises and Becoming a CEO | ReThinkHR – (ReThink Human Resources) posted at ReThinkHR – (ReThink Human Resources), saying, “Many employees believe that they are being mistreated. Lately it has been in the form of decrease in benefits and lack of merit and pay increases. But is this truly mistreatment, a sign of the economic times or just the fact that they do not feel they are getting what is owed or deserved?”

Kevin W. Grossman presents We are responsible for EQ learning that sticks, not slides posted at Leaders. Better. Brighter.™ The Glowan Consulting Group L3 Blog.

Lisa Rosendahl presents We Are All Bullies, Sometimes posted at her new Women of HR. Check it out, the site has a great collection of contributors.

Anna Smith presents Inspire The World – A Recipe posted at WDYWFT Blog, saying, “A post on how to bake an inspiration cake. Just in time for the holiday season.” Sounds yummy.

Jennifer V. Miller presents Leaders Help People Connect the Dots posted at The People Equation. Jennifer’s great – she always connects the dots for me.

William Matthies presents More Than Honesty, Now What? posted at Business Wisdom: Words to Manage By, saying, “How much “truth” can you handle?”

Sharlyn Lauby serves up another round of wisdom with Developing Your Mission Statement posted at hr bartender, saying, “Managers need to be involved in creating and evaluating the company mission. It’s an effective way to keep them engaged and focused on operational goals.”

John Hunter presents A Theory of a System for Educators and Managers posted at Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog.

David Zinger presents Leveraging Positive Deviancy for Employee Engagement posted at Employee Engagement Zingers, saying, “Leverage positive deviance to enhance your employee engagement work.”

Adi Gaskell presents I’ll hire you so long as you don’t threaten my mojo | Chartered Management Institute posted at The Management Blog, saying, “Insight into how management recruit talent based upon their own strengths and weaknesses.”

Nick McCormick presents Live Your Deepest Values at Work posted at Joe and Wanda – on Management, saying, “Stan Slap, author of “Bury My Heart at Conference Room B,” is the guest on this episode of “The Management Tips Podcast Series.” Stan explains that emotional commitment is the key to optimal performance, and the only way to achieve it is to live your deepest values at work. Listen in to find out more.”

Mike Henry Sr. presents 5 Performance Tips When You Are Micro-Managed | Lead Change Group posted at Lead Change Group | Site Wide Activity, saying, “What can someone do when their boss is a micro-manager. This post contains 5 ways you can use your performance to attempt to affect your situation.”

Jason Seiden will never give you the usual party line. Here’s Promoted In a Flat World—Wait, Is That Possible? posted at Fail Spectacularly!, saying, “The way in which people are promoted for good work has got to change. Now.”

I had a chance to meet Lynn Dessert recently, and have been following her blog ever since. I’d recommend you do to! Here’s Succession planning: Always a good outcome? | Elephants at Work posted at Elephants at Work, saying, “Succession planning done in a vacuum rarely works to a manager’s benefit when they are interested in employees from another group.”

I think this may be Mike Hoban’s first submission, but if it’s DDI, it’s got to be good. Here’s Cast Your Vote at the Office posted at DDI’s Talent Management Intelligence.

GreatManagement presents 6 Steps To More Effective Management posted at Great Management, saying, “Here are six basic skills to increase your abilities as an effective manager:”

I run a family blog, so this one almost didn’t make the cut…. but I can’t turn away Miki Saxon. Here’s Ducks in a Row: Leadership or LeadershIt?, posted at Mapping Company Success. Don’t worry, it’s clean.

Michael Cardus presents Is Your Leadership & Work Matched to Capability; How do you know? posted at Create-Learning Team Building & Leadership Blog, saying, “This is why leaders and people within the organization NEED to be properly matched with their capability to make decisions, use their judgment for completion of task assignments (within Goal Setting Structures) and have the opportunity to work for a leader that knows their values & commitments, plus can establish clear and distinct good and bad quality definitions of work. All people who work are due that from the leader.”

Shawn M. Driscoll presents The Innovator in Each of Us posted at Shawn Driscoll.

Heather Stagl presents 99 Ways to Influence Change posted at Enclaria LLC.

John Coleman presents My Leadership Failure posted at Developing the Leader in You

Joe Tichio presents Oct 4, Famous Leadership Quotes posted at Inspirational Quotes Blog, saying, “A collection of leadership quotes from famous people in government, the military, business, and more.”

Namita Panigrahi presents Do you challenge your high performer(s) ? posted at TalentedApps, saying, “We often overlook a very important way to motivate our high performers (hint: it isn’t money)”

Mike Miranda presents Leadership and Ice Cream | Workforce Management Opinions & Trends posted at Aquire Blog, saying, “Here is a leadership blog post sent on behalf of Lois Melbourne, CEO of Aquire.

Iván Ríos-Mena presents A System Isn’t Enough (And What You Can Do About It) posted at Iván Ríos-Mena, saying, “Systems and methods by themselves aren’t enough to change workplace values and attitudes. Here are three ways to start changing your organization’s culture to make it deal better with conflict.”

JeremyMDay presents How To Promote Teamwork posted at Jeremy M. Day, saying, “These are three things I have learned from being a manager in my own company about how to promote teamwork among all colleagues.”

Image credit: Great Leadership

Mention innovation and most people think of startups and the entrepreneurs who take the risk, so I thought today would be a good time to check in to the goings on in that world.

First, a look at 11 Harsh Realities of Being an Entrepreneur for those who are considering an entrepreneurial path; not to turn you off, but to spur you on.

By knowing the harsh realities that lie ahead, you can be prepared when they come about so you can solider on.

Getting funded is as much a function of who you know as what you do and any serious entrepreneur will walk over hot coals if doing so gives an advantage to that end. Enter Y Combinator, that not only gives entrepreneurs an edge getting funding, but on getting better terms.

Many of the best applications come from accomplished programmers who have working product demos but lack gilt-edged Valley Rolodexes. … The real winners are rising stars like Jessica Mah. “The competition this created for us was amazing.”

Social media, now just called ‘social’ may be a hotbed of the young, but don’t rule the old men of investing out of the game even when it is someone who seems to be constantly switching horses and proclaiming his current mount ‘the next big thing’.

Sand Hill Road was abuzz after Kleiner Perkins’ John Doerr rallied Jeff Bezos, Zynga founder Mark Pincus, and Mark Zuckerberg to a joint press conference at Facebook in Palo Alto and announced a $250 million fund to invest in the “next wave of social entrepreneurs.

Marc Andreessen and partner Ben Horowitz are successful entrepreneurs who are changing the focus of the venture world by doing extremely early-stage funding. And here is a more in-depth look at what at what Andreessen is doing.

Although it is too early to judge the firm’s financial success, Andreessen Horowitz represents a new breed of venture capitalist that is financing new kinds of start-ups.

Entrepreneurs come in many flavors and not all are in the commercial world as the new breed of activist shows. If you are one of those who laments the problems overseas, take a look at what’s being done in the name of ‘DIY foreign aid‘.

It’s striking that the most innovative activists aren’t necessarily the ones with the most resources, or the best tools. … Rather, what often happens is that those best positioned to take action look the other way, and then the initiative is taken by the Scharpfs and Shannons of the world, who are fueled by some combustible mix of indignation and vision.

Finally, although the power of social has hardly been tapped, it is already the meeting ground of charity and profit.

Founded in 2007 by political activist Joe Green and former Facebook President Sean Parker (yes, that Sean Parker), Causes uses social media tools to virtually connect thousands of charities with their supporters and potential donors. The Berkeley (Calif.) company began as one of the first applications on Facebook and now serves as a broker for 119 million charitably minded users.

Image credit: pedroCarvalho on flickr

In today’s world those classed as truly wealthy are also considered leaders.

I have a politically moderate friend who believes that how people spend their money is no one’s business but their own. I used to feel that way, but the growing concentration of wealth is changing my mind.

What are the responsibilities of wealth? Is there a “line in the sand” beyond which spending on “I want” becomes immoral?

Possibly Meg Whitman’s spending $140 million to become governor of California can be defended (although personally I don’t see how), but Mukesh Ambani’s new home in Mumbai has to have crossed the line.

…cantilevered sheath of steel and glass soaring 27 floors into the sky. The parking garage fills six levels. Three helipads are on the roof. There are terraces upon terraces, airborne swimming pools and hanging gardens…estimated the total residential space at 400,000 square feet, though people close to the project say the real number is a humbler 60,000 square feet.

60,000 square feet for a family of five is ‘humbler’?

The extravagance of the ultra-wealthy is increasing no matter the political system and these are the leaders that young people seek to emulate.

What do you think? What should be expected of a leader? Would you draw a line? If so, where?

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jhariani/4801125226/

Bosses, business coaches, academics, bloggers and many others bemoan the lack of communications skills in Gen Y, especially written communications, but they have plenty of company in preceding generations.

Not just bad writing, but opaque writing, the kind that leaves readers scratching their heads wondering what they are missing.

Of course, I shouldn’t complain, since one of my company’s most popular products is Clarity RE-writing, which involves using the fewest possible words to present even the most complex information in the most understandable way.

Who are the worst writers?

Granting that many of Gen Y don’t understand the difference between writing and texting, I find lousy writing much more offensive when it comes from those who (should) know better.

And while the more lofty their position the more offended I am, I save my greatest reaction for those old enough and senior enough to know better who work in the field—in other words, they are, or should be, professional communicators.

Charles H. Townsend, the chief executive of Condé Nast Publications, which includes Vogue, The New Yorker and Vanity Fair, is such a one. He recently sent a 500 word memo to his staff, here is a sample from it.

“…a consumer-centric business model, a holistic brand management approach and the establishment of a multi-platform, integrated sales and marketing organization.”… “To optimize brand revenue growth, we will shift responsibility for single-site, digital sales and marketing to the brand level. Publishers can now fully leverage their offerings across all platforms.”

Don’t feel badly if you aren’t sure what he is trying to say, his staff wasn’t sure, either.

If you want to write clearly here is some quick and basic guidance.

• Avoid jargon;
• shun multi-syllabic words;
• use short, simple sentences;
• pass on large blocks of text, especially on the Net;
• spell check everything; and, most importantly,
• remember that most people scan and don’t actually read.

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nirak/2854421030/