If your career or the time you’ve spent following business up and downs doesn’t predate 2006 then you may not think of Best Buy as a successful, cutting edge, highly innovative company with an exceptional culture.

I was reminded of Best Buy when I read that many managers still believe that time = productivity and contributions.

The managers viewed employees who were seen at the office during business hours as highly “dependable” and “reliable.” Employees who came in over the weekend or stayed late in the evening were seen as “committed” and “dedicated” to their work.

That attitude is so last century; in fact, it harks back to the industrial and even the agrarian age when presence was synonymous with productivity. After all, you couldn’t produce if you weren’t there.

The reason I thought of Best Buy is because it was the 2003 birthplace of ROWE.

ROWE means Results Only Workplace Environment and I’ve written about it previously (a lot), so rather than write the same stuff again here’s a link to my ROWE-related posts.

As to its success, in 2010 total revenues increased 11% and $4.4 billion of that was from female customers—not your typical big box tech shopper (at that time).

The extraordinary culture created by Brad Anderson that allowed for the bottom-up development of something as revolutionary as ROWE can not be overstated.

But it can be repeated.

Flickr image credit: Keith Laverack

Why is common sense often treated like rocket science?

If you want to increase your overall retention rate start by respecting your people.

There are too many managers who only respect their ‘stars’ and then wonder why turnover is rampant in the rest of the organization.

Then there are the legions of managers who believe that if they can’t demonstrate their respect with perks because their budget was cut there is no way to prove they value their people.

Ahem! Respect isn’t a matter of perks.

You’re people aren’t stupid, they know the score, so tell them the truth and build trust.

Provide what tangible proof you can to show that you value your workers, from health care to chocolate, but don’t insult them by saying the company can’t afford something when it obviously can.

Respect isn’t about benefits and benefits, no matter how exotic, don’t give you the right to disrespect them.

Nor will benefits underwrite bad management—you don’t get to micromanage, insult, play favorites, or bully your people just because the company offers health insurance.

The bottom line is simple—if you treat your people as replaceable don’t be surprised when you have the opportunity to do so.

Flickr image credit: Martin Abegglen

Here is the fourth installment of comments about politics; if you missed the previous ones you may find them here 1, 2, and 3. You’ll notice I named the third one “I Hate Politics 3,” which was actually an error, but one I like, so I’m going to continue using it.

Politicians come from varied backgrounds; in times past most were lawyers, but these days they are truly anything; or, as Robert Louis Stevenson so aptly puts it, Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary.

Gore Vidal adds a telling comment to that with which I totally agree, Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so.

As campaigns heat up the zingers always fly thicker and faster; one of the best came from Adlai Stevenson, in a 1952 campaign speech, I offer my opponents a bargain: if they will stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling the truth about them.

Some lies never die (even when they should) and some of the nastiest seem to hang around forever (BTW, nasty isn’t a new trend as some seem to think, but more on that another week.) Our old friend Anonymous made a good point when he said, Why pay money to have your family tree traced; go into politics and your opponents will do it for you.

It’s hard to argue with the wisdom of Will Rogers, especially this little gem, If we got one-tenth of what was promised to us in these  acceptance speeches there wouldn’t be any inducement to go to heaven.

Have a great rest-of-the-weekend and I’ll see you tomorrow.

Flickr image credit:

In our society success = money. As children we are taught to pursue success, so actions that bring success within our grasp are honed from childhood on and cheating is one of those actions. I’ve often focused on the prevalence of cheating in schools, how it’s rationalized and where it leads.

That rationalization is succinctly explained by a kid attending a premier high school.

“It’s like, ‘I’ll keep my integrity and fail this test’ — no. No one wants to fail a test,” he said, explaining how he and others persuaded themselves to cheat. “You could study for two hours and get an 80, or you could take a risk and get a 90.”

In short, they wanted success, which meant getting into the “right” school; of course, getting into the right school rarely spells the end of cheating.

Over and over again, students told us that they admired good work and wanted to be good workers. But they also told us they wanted — ardently — to be successful. They feared that their peers were cutting corners and that if they themselves behaved ethically, they would be bested. And so, they told us in effect, “Let us cut corners now and one day, when we have achieved fame and fortune, we’ll be good workers and set a good example.”

Of course, the drive for success doesn’t end with school; if anything it increases. But many people have a naïve belief that cheating is found more often in business and politics, while the world of science is one of higher integrity—would it were actually true.

In the new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, two scientists and a medical communications consultant analyzed 2,047 retracted papers in the biomedical and life sciences. They found that misconduct was the reason for three-quarters of the retractions for which they could determine the cause.

Even 50 years of integrity, including 30 with the FBI, isn’t protection against that lure.

“For 30 years I’ve sacrificed to get to this point.” But his exit strategy, according to federal prosecutors, included his participation in a multimillion-dollar international scheme that involved the lieutenant colonel in charge of the United States Army’s Special Forces operations in Afghanistan and a Boston-based defense contractor.

Cheating is rife in the world of sports and that includes fishing—and I don’t mean the stories about one that got away.

Those who run, monitor and compete in tournaments said that cheating scandals have tarnished the wholesome image of fishing and ruined the final rankings in many competitions, as people handed trophies, cash and other prizes were later found to have cheated.

Cheating often involves taking advantage, whether of circumstances or people—or both. Just look what can happen to people whose circumstances force them to rent a computer instead of buying one.

DesignerWare, a Pennsylvania-based software maker, to create a program that secretly captured “webcam pictures of children, partially undressed individuals, and intimate activities at home.” This included people who while engaging in sexual activities in their homes were being recorded on their rental computers. (…) In a news release issued by the F.T.C., Jon Leibowitz, the agency’s chairman, said the software had also captured consumers’ private e-mails, bank account information and medical records. In some instances the software was able to capture Social Security numbers, medical records and doctor’s names. Most disturbing, the webcam captured pictures of children.

Flickr image credit: pedroelcarvalho

A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here

A couple of years ago I wrote a post about leadership that included a quote from the main character, a forensic anthropologist, in the TV show Bones.

Anthropology tells us that the Alpha male is the one with the crown, the most shiny baubles, the fanciest plumage, but I learned that the real alpha male is often in the shadows because he is busy shining the light on others.

Founders are typically alphas, whether male or female.

With that in mind I have a simple question to ask you.

Which kind of alpha are you?

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Flickr image credit: HikingArtist

Vator Splash is a gathering of investors, successful entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs-in-process, entrepreneur wannabes, people who follow technology and those who just like a good party.

Splash brings together high-caliber speakers who talk about how to build and scale great successful companies, how their industries are changing and the opportunities those changes are creating.

Granted there is much to learn from the speakers and networking opportunities, but in a world of too little time how do you choose where to spend it.

The recent Vator Splash conference in San Francisco made me believe that there are different levels of needs for startups.

Somehow it seems that I’ve gone from kindergarten to elementary school, and now have finally advanced to middle school as an entrepreneur.  Vator Splash seems to be more on the kindergarten/elementary school level.

What am I attempting to express by making this simile?  The levels of knowledge and performance required in each of these school stages reflect the different stages of starting and building a company.  Kindergarten is the idea stage; it is necessary to do market research and concept development.  Usually this is an iterative process that can take months to years, involves speaking with lots of people and getting feedback that enables the idea to improve.

At elementary school the real learning begins – this is when it’s time to build a team, raise initial capital (friends & family or Angel) and start working on creating a product.

In middle school things reach another level – attracting customers in a repeatable fashion, dealing with executives, and realizing your product’s (baby’s) shortcomings and learning to live with them.

This is when the startup becomes a real business and has to learn to deal with the complexities of the outside world.  It has to learn to stand on its own legs and understand how to achieve profitability and growth.

This most often means significantly more investment capital as well, probably a factor of 10-30. Some, very few, companies manage to get through this stage based on the revenues they generate, but this is unusual in the technology space.

High school – I’m still wondering what this will entail.  Clearly it has to do with serious scaling, greater product complexity and possible internationalization (though some has already happened).

Each stage has its different capital requirements, so this must also be considered.  Beyond that, all is speculation as I’m yet to experience it.

The point to all this is that there seems to be few conferences that are focused on middle and high school.  Almost everything is centered around kindergarten and elementary school.

There must be a conference market for entrepreneurs that are a little more advanced.  If you know about any, please let me know.

KG Charles-Harris is CEO of Emanio and a special contributor to MAPping Company Success.

Flickr image credit: Vator Splash

Monday I said “Not all challenges can be overcome (more abut that Wednesday); sometimes you can find work-arounds, others you just need to accept.”

Based on the emails I received it’s a good thing I said we’d look at that idea Wednesday.

Before the Boomers people had problems, but after that giant wave entered the adult world “problems” morphed into challenges and challenges were something to be solved and overcome.

But is that always necessary?

Based on my personal experience I don’t think so.

Whether I consider it a problem or a challenge, here is what I do.

1. Take a few steps back to get some perspective. I want to see the whole thing; not just the bit that has blocked me.
2. Consider my approach; I can
   1. ignore it, detour around and continue down my path;
   2. identify exactly what is in my way and address only that part;
   3. develop a solution that eradicates it completely; and
   4. recognize and accept that it is completely out of my hands.

I start with my sixth rule; beyond that determining which of the three is applicable is a very personal decision. Over the years I’ve found the breakdown roughly as follows:

70% of the time I find number one works just fine.

20% fall in the second category.

8% have the capacity to pop up over and over and need to be solved.

2% are unsolvable and just need to be endured.

Flickr image credit: Eli Christman

Three years ago, in Leadership Turn, I talked about the dangers of allowing your culture to become a cult, but it seems that’s happening more and more.

The same day I explained here the benefits of what I called an ALUC culture.

ALUC is composed of four actions:

• Ask everyone for input, ideas, suggestions and opinions—not just your so-called stars.

• Listen and really hear what is said, discuss it, think about it.

• Use what you get as often as possible, whether in whole or in part, or as the springboard that leads to something totally different.

• Credit the source(s), both up and down, publicly and privately, thank them, compliment them, congratulate them.

The following day I offered some simple advice on implementing ALUC.

All three were worth reading then.

All three are worth reading now.

You want/need a culture, not a cult.

Flickr image credit: Antony Hollingworth

Most managers know that their people focus better and are more productive when the weather is bad; furthermore they know why—distraction.

Sunny skies draw peoples thought outside and focus them on thoughts of what they could be doing, while gray skies and rain are far less distracting.

However, I doubt those same managers are aware that décor, such as sun and surf travel posters, generates the same distracting effect.

…an increase in rain correlated with a decrease in the time it took for workers to complete their tasks. Low visibility and extreme temperatures also matched periods of high worker productivity. Clear, sunny days correlated with relatively low productivity. (…) Meanwhile, exposure to the sunny-day photographs significantly decreased the performance of participants who came to the lab on rainy days. For those who came in on sunny days, the added distraction of the sunny-day photographs had little effect on performance.

While you can control the décor, you can’t control the weather, so how can you improve productivity on those pesky great-weather days?

• Recognize that sunny-weather distraction is part of being human, happens on all levels and you are unlikely to change it.
• Take weather into consideration when scheduling and allow extra time during sunny times on your private schedule, not necessarily the one you share with the team.
• Develop good weather incentives, such as time outdoors for hitting predetermined goals.
• Most importantly, don’t waste energy trying to change

Not all challenges can be overcome (more abut that Wednesday); sometimes you can find work-arounds, others you just need to accept.

Flickr image credit: duncan_idaho_2007