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Golden Oldies: Ducks in a Row: Politically Correct is a False Positive

May 13th, 2019 by Miki Saxon

Poking through 12+ years of posts I find information that’s as useful now as when it was written.

Golden Oldies is a collection of the most relevant and timeless posts during that time.

While politically correct has made a lot of noise since its rise in the media, it hasn’t made any real difference. Join me tomorrow for a look at the problem with many progressives and why it will undermine many of the changes they champion.

Read other Golden Oldies here.

I sent an article about the “frat house” (AKA, sexist) culture prevalent in ZocDoc’s sales department to “Kevin”, a good friend who works in sales.

While agreeing about problematic sales cultures, he had a different take on culture in general.

His viewpoint, from someone who has been there/done that, may not be socially acceptable and could probably get him in trouble if posted on social media, but I can share it here — anonymously

Whether you’re a nigger or a bitch, this is the shit you have to deal with. I prefer environments where it’s obvious what the culture is, like this, than politically correct cultures where bigotry is the norm, but you never know for sure why you didn’t get the bonus, promotion or accolade with superior performance. Screw political correctness!

I believe it’s important to know where you stand, because then you can make informed choices. Give me this culture anytime – when I enter, I will know what the rules are. If I stay, it’s to accomplish a particular personal goal. When I leave (if not immediately), I will know why I stayed, left, and what I gained. I’m richer, they are poorer.

There is no such thing as “politically correct”. The term itself is an oxymoron that implies consensus building, popular sentiment or sinister machinations. Politics is about popularity — we never let others know where we stand or what we stand for in order to win a popularity contest. It is giving in to the tyranny of the mob, not daring to have unpopular opinions or stances, because one will not be popular.

Being a black man, I prefer a racist that’s honest about who he is and what he is. I prefer working for such a person because I know what to expect. I presume it would be the same for you as a woman regarding sexists. These days no one is a racist, we just have “unconscious biases” that prevent us from taking unpopular positions and that ensure that the powerful can continue to exclude the less powerful.

Politically correct environments rob me of information, choice, and the ability to navigate astutely to attain my objectives.

I agree with Kevin, even in those instances where bias has its basis in neuroscience, it’s better to know.

Flickr image credit: Zaskoda:

Turning Silver Into Hiring Gold

May 8th, 2019 by Miki Saxon

https://www.flickr.com/photos/141761303@N08/27124951009/

Think about this.

Since 1998, the US has seen employment rise by 22 million to reach historical highs. The main cause of this increase isn’t the dynamism of Silicon Valley or the entrepreneurial energy of Brooklyn hipsters. The vast majority (90%) of this increase is due to higher employment for workers aged 55 and above.

Unless you’ve been hiding in a barrel, the greying of the workforce won’t be news.

What does surprise many managers is that older workers are looking for the same things in terms of culture and management as Gen X and Millennials.

Which are pretty much the same things workers have always wanted and I doubt that will change with Gen Z or the generations that follow.

No matter the role you’re hiring for, if you are smart the candidate’s age isn’t going to affect your decision.

And if it doesn’t, then you have conquered one of the biggest hurdles to being a great manager.

Moreover, you will have fewer problems staffing, since you will have a far larger candidate pool to choose from.

Image credit: Amtec Photos

Job Titles

May 7th, 2019 by Miki Saxon

https://www.flickr.com/photos/atalaya/28580198103/

One of the dumbest (stupidest?) actions during the original dot com boom was two-fold.

The first was title inflation, with larger companies taking a leaf from the financial services industry where customer-facing positions, such as brokers and non-teller positions, were often VPs.

Second, bigger titles were often handed out in lieu of promotions and raises, while in the startup community titles bore little-to-no relationship to the person’s skills or experience.

Both created major problems for candidates when interviewing at new companies, especially for those who bought into their titles. It came as shock that the skills required to be a VP in a “real” company are seriously different than those needed in a startup.

That was then, but what’s happening now?

I got the answer in a list from CB Insights of tech’s silliest job titles.

It’s gotten worse.

Aside from confusing their customers and vendors, the titles sound totally idiotic to all but a very small slice of the tech world.

However, the titles do do a great job of strengthening gender bias and turning off women.

What more could any bro want?

Image credit: JJ Merelo

Golden Oldies: 3 About Jobs

May 6th, 2019 by Miki Saxon

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ronkroetz/6639259975/

Poking through 12+ years of posts I find information that’s as useful now as when it was written.

Golden Oldies is a collection of the most relevant and timeless posts during that time.

I was looking for a particular post that tied to one I’m writing for tomorrow, but couldn’t find it. However, I did find three I think worth sharing, because they also apply, albeit indirectly I hope you enjoy them..

Read other Golden Oldies here.

A look at education, especially MBAs.

From a Harvard-educated CEO.

Excellent  article. Very true. It took me years to unlearn what I’d been taught at business school…

From a post about why companies need managers and how to build them.

Good managers aren’t born; they are developed through a learned set of skills combined with the right attitude and culture.

The importance of accurate org charts.

Historically, companies’ reluctance to publish simple, accurate, current org charts has been anchored in a fear that “they”—whether headhunters or competitors—would steal their best and brightest. But when corporate (or managerial) paranoia leads to withholding information making the job more difficult, there’s no need to worry about people being recruited because they’ll be out actively looking!

Image credit: Ron Kroetz

Announcement from Mapping Company Success

May 3rd, 2019 by Miki Saxon

https://www.flickr.com/photos/71195909@N03/15579436810/

After writing this blog for 13+ years I’ve decided that I’m entitled to a summer schedule.

Therefore, from now until Fall, Mapping Company Success will publish Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

The rest of the time will be spent on getting my act together

May your summer will be as enjoyable as mine (I hope) will be productive.

Image credit: Animated Heaven

Acquiring Wisdom

May 1st, 2019 by Miki Saxon

https://www.flickr.com/photos/132023040@N02/16687996278/

Continuing from yesterday.

Two of the hardest things you need to do to start acquiring wisdom are

  1. Investing the time, energy and discomfort in getting to actually know yourself — the real you that may only exist in private at 3 AM and that you rarely if ever talk about.
  2. Choosing (yes, it’s your choice) to reduce your intake of social media or not, you do need to reduce your reliance on it. At the same time you want to strengthen your objectivity

The absolute requirement of the first is to get to know your opinions, biases, prejudices, etc., sans outside influences. You can’t be objective until you know your subjective viewpoint.

That said, today’s world of distractions, intentionally addictive social media, and extended working hours doesn’t lend itself to self-reflection. That means you need to consciously set aside the time to do it and then follow through — same as any get healthy program.

Developing your objectivity requires you to do some very uncomfortable things, such as reading/listening to material outside your worldview, belief system and comfort zone.

Then researching sources recognized as objective to determine the validity of the information.

You should know that the odds are against your accomplishing this.

Research has shown that no matter how much incontestable proof people rarely change their mind.

But perhaps you can be one of the exceptions.

Image credit: Katherine McGittigan

Ducks in a Row: Wisdom Then and Now

April 30th, 2019 by Miki Saxon

The above image was yesterday’s Oldie from 2009.

What’s changed (or was off in the first place) since then?

Let’s take them one-by-one.

Data: data, since “facts” are often historical and the historical info is often biased.

Information: Think bias and fake news, neither is new, but the quantity has exploded.

Knowledge: Same as original.

Understanding: Too often why or any questioning is asked only if the facts and information run counter to our beliefs, opinion, and worldview.

Wisdom: Unlikely.

Wikipedia describes wisdom as follows:

Wisdom, sapience, or sagacity is the ability to think and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight.[1] Wisdom is associated with attributes such as unbiased judgment, compassion, experiential self-knowledge, self-transcendence and non-attachment,[2] and virtues such as ethics and benevolence.[3][4]

Much of the ability to think according to the above description has been either voluntarily turned over to, or co-opted by, social media.

Considered actions often must pass an “Instagram/Twitter filter;” those that don’t aren’t acted upon.

If there is anything social media can not be blamed for it’s a proliferation of wisdom.

Join me tomorrow for a look at ways and means to acquire wisdom.

Image credit: Nick J Webb

Golden Oldies: Wordless Wednesday: The Trip Of A Lifetime

April 29th, 2019 by Miki Saxon

Poking through 11+ years of posts I find information that’s as useful now as when it was written.

Golden Oldies is a collection of the most relevant and timeless posts during that time.

Back in the late 2000s, when blogs were newish, there was a thing called Wordless Wednesday. The idea was to present your thoughts on a subject with a picture, instead of words. Anyway, I came across this one and it fit so well with a post I’m working on I decided to make it this weeks Oldie.

Read other Golden Oldies here.

Image credit: Nick J Webb

Writing Advantage

April 24th, 2019 by Miki Saxon

http://www.flickr.com/photos/foxtongue/84585996/

Considering the examples of bad writing in Monday’s and Tuesday’s posts it’s obvious that much of the problem comes down to a lack of clarity.

No surprise there, but other than confusing everyone, bad writing easily morphs into no writing, which can be a disastrous to product development, especially in tech.

As the image above shows, lack of writing skills impact every part of a sale, but lack of documentation is probably the worst.

Think about it. Things go wrong with equipment all the time and when it does you go to the manual to see how to fix it.

Software is even worse.

With minimal-to-no documentation, fixing bugs, iterating and keeping legacy software running is extremely difficult, especially if the primary developers leave the company.

No matter your education or experience, if you can write coherently you will have a serious edge over other candidates.

Image credit: Jhayne

Good Writing — What and Why

April 23rd, 2019 by Miki Saxon

https://www.flickr.com/photos/writingreader/21894942419/

Does writing matter? Do capitals matter? Does punctuation matter? Does reviewing what you wrote matter?

Yes. Yes. Yes. And yes.

We’re not talking about becoming the next Tom Clancy or winning a Webby.

This is about sounding professional and respecting your reader, whomever they may be.

There are a lot of things that go into good writing, but the most important thing is that it makes sense, not how many multi-syllabic words are used. Obviously, this Fortune 500 company manager didn’t believe that when he described his job.

“It is my job to ensure proper process deployment activities take place to support process institutionalization and sustainment. Business process management is the core deliverable of my role, which requires that I identify process competency gaps and fill those gaps.”

Additionally, it requires using the correct words, as I said in another post.

“Are most people loosing their minds, while I am losing mine?

Years ago KG sent me a memorable reminder of the importance of capitalization. I used it then and here it is again.

“Capitalization is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse.”

A missing comma cost Oakhurst Dairy a lawsuit for overtime — they lost.

Finally, it takes very little time to review what you wrote; the best way is to read it out loud.

CB Insights shared a hilarious example from a resume they received.

P.S. We’ve been asking folks about their job interviewing and resume reading tips. Here’s a pointer for candidates: think carefully about your wording when submitting a CV. We received this earlier this week:

Enough said.

Image credits: thewritingreader and CB Insights

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