Why in the world would I choose a poet who’s life barely reached into the Twentieth Century (1850-1919 to provide insight to both workers and mangers? Because real wisdom is ageless, what changes are the words and style used to communicate it.

You’re already familiar with Wilcox through paraphrasing of some of her work; for example, “Laugh and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone; For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth, But has trouble enough of its own”

Life is full of choices and the way we choose is dictated by our MAP, or as Wilcox said, “’Tis the set of the sail that decides the goal, and not the storm of life”

I’m a big proponent of deep thinking, something that can’t happen when you are wired and connected. Wilcox made this point beautifully in this short rhyme.

“When the great universe was wrought
To might and majesty from naught,
The all creative force was –
THOUGHT.”

Thinking goes hand in hand with learning and then sharing what is learned with others. The problem is that some people want to share first and these words seem written especially for them,

“Live to learn, and learn to live
If you want to give men knowledge
You must get, ere you give.”

Here’s some great advice for managers, “A pat on the back is only a few vertebrae removed from a kick in the pants, but is miles ahead in results.”

Finally, here are six words that can serve as a foundation for both entrepreneurs and companies working to create a culture of innovation, “Change is the watchword of progression”

Flickr image credit: WikiMedia Commons

“We are not made, or unmade, by the things that happen to us but by our reactions to them.” (from a comment on the original post)

I guess everyone has some kind of September 11^th story. I wrote mine in 2009 and am reposting it below.

A Different View of September 11

Much will be done today to commemorate the lives lost on September 11, 2001. The story I’m going to share has a different focus than most and one I believe is worth your time.

Among those who died that day was the husband of a woman I knew casually and because our acquaintance was casual I was surprised when she called nearly six months later.

I’ll call her “Kerry” and we talked for hours, but the kernel I want to share is this.

She needed support to move; not just move on, it was too early for that, but to physically move.

Kerry said the reaction to “Craig’s” death changed when people found out he died in the attack. It changed from sympathy or empathy to an almost macabre interest in how she felt because he died “that way.”

Many seemed to feel that her politics should change (she is ‘liberal moderate’, her words) and that the event should be the main focus not only in her life, but also for her two young daughters and she didn’t want that.

Kerry said she called me because she remembered my saying that I found it sad that John Kennedy Jr.’s life seemed to be defined by his father’s death; that he never was able to become anyone other than the little boy who saluted at the funeral.

Kerry said that she didn’t want her kids to be forever known as “Kristy/Jenny-her-father-was-killed-in-the-September-11-attacks”

The problem was that many of her family and friends were horrified at how she felt. They acted as if losing Craig September 11 made his death a national symbol, not a personal tragedy.

We talked many times over the next few months and the upshot was that Kerry did move far away where no one knew them. When Craig’s death came up in conversation Kerry just said that her husband had died; she said when her daughters were mature enough she would tell them what happened, but not until they had the opportunity for a normal life—not one filled with other people’s baggage.

I think for Kerry I was “the stranger on the plane,” the uninvolved person to whom you can say anything because you will never see or hear from them again and I was honored to play that part.

The death of a parent is always tragic. I know; I was five when the driver of the car in which my father was traveling fell asleep at the wheel and drove off a mountain road.

The point I want to make today is that we don’t forget, but we do move on and as we move we grow and change.

No matter how horrendous the event we all have the ability to choose what defines us and what memories rule our lives.

Never allow others to force you into a role that fits their view of what should define you.

Image credit: Foxtongue

If you truly want to know how good a positional leader is in the business world you ask the people she manages. Productivity and even retention don’t tell the whole story, because there can be informal leaders in the group who offset her ineptness and errors.

Essentially, teachers are in the same type of positional leadership roles, but you don’t see anyone asking their students to evaluate their skill.

No, that would be way too simple—until now.

Surveying students is part of a $45 million Gates Foundation funded study of teacher effectiveness.

Teachers whose students described them as skillful at maintaining classroom order, at focusing their instruction and at helping their charges learn from their mistakes are often the same teachers whose students learn the most in the course of a year, as measured by gains on standardized test scores, according to a progress report on the research.

Even the descriptions and actions cited are similar to what people seek in their manager.

According to Harvard researcher Dr. Ronald Ferguson, “Kids know effective teaching when they experience it,” just as employees know when they have good managers.

Micro management, that killer of initiative, productivity and morale, has it’s counterpart in teaching, too, in the form of rote drilling.

One notable early finding, Ms. [Vicki] Phillips said, is that teachers who incessantly drill their students to prepare for standardized tests tend to have lower value-added learning gains than those who simply work their way methodically through the key concepts of literacy and mathematics.
“Teaching to the test makes your students do worse on the tests,” Ms. Phillips said. “It turns out all that ‘drill and kill’ isn’t helpful.”

The big question I have is when will schools and business recognize that motivational efforts are the same, relatively speaking, across ages and environments, just as are the actions that demotivate?

Flickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wfryer/204073798/

Dan McCarthy is this month’s host and he has set the carnival to an NFL theme in honor of the start of football season. (Damn! This year is passing at light speed!) He also explains a special NFL promotion that could put you at the Super Bowl next year.

BTW, The United Way and the NFL are teaming up for the first Back to Football Friday, a celebration of the start of the NFL season and an effort to promote youth health and wellness on Friday, September 10. They are encouraging fans of all ages to show their NFL team pride at work or with their friends by wearing their favorite team’s gear or colors and planning parties, and to join the United Way and NFL’s campaign to end childhood obesity. Anyone who registers is eligible to win a trip for two to Super Bowl XLV. One winning workplace will receive a visit from an NFL player at an NFL-hosted office party. Find out how to get involved here: www.LiveUnited.org/backtofootball.

So grab a beer and some chips, or whatever floats your boat, and enjoy our big game.

The tailgate party:

We’ll start this month’s edition with a little warm-up in the parking lot.

Erin Schreyer and Mike Henry team up to give us some spicy grub with What Really Makes You a Leader? posted at Lead Change Group. Seems like everyone has an opinion on this one, with over 70 comments.

David Burkus gives us a bucket of my favorite food, with My Buffalo Wild Wings Rant posted at LeaderLab.

Jason Seiden brought the paper plates and napkins, with Life Is Messy posted at Fail Spectacularly!.

Who brought the beer? None other than Sharlyn Lauby, with The Business Case for Managing Ourselves posted at HR Bartender,

and Mark Stelzner, with  Why Morons Win posted at Inflexion Point.

Kick-off:

The game starts with a bang with lots of high scoring action! Here’s Jane Perdue, our HR Goddess, with Excellence ? 1; Perfectionism ? 0 posted at Get Your Leadership BIG On!.

First to score is Art Petty with Leadership Caffeine-Give Your People Room to Run posted at Management Excellence.

Kevin W. Grossman gets a sack with Influential Leadership Can Trump Gender Bias posted at Leaders. Better. Brighter.™ The Glowan Consulting Group L3 Blog.

Bret Simmons is penalized for unnecessary roughness with Remarkably Unprofessional Behavior | Bret L. Simmons – Positive Organizational Behavior posted at Bret L. Simmons – Positive Organizational Behavior.

Wally Bock gives some veteran advice to the rookies in the huddle, with Simple Leadership Basics posted at Three Star Leadership Blog.

The 2nd quarter:

Jennifer V. Miller starts the 2nd quarter with a trick play –  The Z Factor posted at The People Equation.

Jim Stroup counters with something from his playbook, with his review of “Good Boss, Bad Boss“, posted at Managing Leadership.

Mary Jo Asmus has some great coaching advice of her own, with On Being a Coach, posted at Aspire-CS.

Bill Matthies does a little end-zone celebration with Let The Good Times Roll (But Plan For The Bad) posted at Business Wisdom: Words to Manage By.

To close the half, Alice Snell puts it through the uprights for three points with Hardwiring Performance posted at Taleo Blog – Talent Management Solutions.

Halftime entertainment:

We’ve got a great musical line-up for your halftime entertainment! Miki Saxon starts it off with a couple hits from her latest album, Ducks in a Row, with Triple A Culture is One of the Worst, and Don’t be Pizzled, Build a RAT Culture, at MAPping Company Success. What the heck is “pizzled”? You’ll have to read the post to find out.

Anne Perschel brings out her amazing leaping leadership frogs, with  Leadership Leap Frog – How to Keep on Learning posted at Germane Insights.

Glain Roberts-McCabe brings back a classic band with Leadership Lessons from Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage a rockin’ focus on goals | RoundtableTalk posted at RoundtableTalk.

Adi Gaskell gets the crowd fired up with 7 ways to schmooze your way to the top posted at The Management Blog.

David Zinger closes out the entertainment with Employee Engagement, Self-Efficacy and Albert Bandura posted at David Zinger Employee Engagement.

The Third Quarter:

Bengamin McCall starts off the second half with an onside kick, with Your Title is Boss, not Jerk, posted at REThink HR.

Nissim Ziv recovers a fumble with How would you Describe Your Leadership Style? posted at Job Interview & Career Guide.

Kris Routch breaks a long run with Leadership Lessons from a 16-Year-Old, posted at DDI’s Talent Management Intelligence blog.

Nick McCormick is up in the booth looking for answers, with Ask Yourself, “What Can I Do?” posted at Joe and Wanda on Management.

Andy Klein runs a draw play for big yardage with Organisational change needs leadership of employee creativity posted at Fortune Group Blog.

The Fourth Quarter:

This game is a nail-biter, so stay with us.

Michael Lee Stallard returns a punt for a big gain with Burnout Results From Living in Conflict with Values posted at Michael Lee Stallard.

Michael Cardus reminds us that there’s no “I” in “teamwork” with Leaders develop structure for teams posted at Create-Learning Team Building & Leadership Blog.

Mike King runs an all out blitz with Examining Your Own Belief Structure posted at Learn This.

Sylvia Lafair runs a creative play with Leadership, Creativity and Getting Unstuck posted at Sylvia Lafair – “Elegant Leadership”.

And right at the final gun, Chris Stowell runs it in for a score with Leadership Is Needed Now: Don’t Wait To Develop Your People posted at Leadership In Action.

The post game show:

Mike Miranda checks in on the NBA highlights, and gives us Lebron…meh…Gen Y has done Better! posted at Y the World Goes ‘Round.

Lois Melbourne reviews the highlights with Be an Accountable Leader and Get to Lunch First!

Kathy C does the locker room interviews with Preparing to Interview a Job Candidate posted at The Thriving Small Business.

Dallas Burrows breaks down the Xs and Os with What Exactly Is Management Theory? posted at Biz-gasm.

Elyse Nielsen presents the game ball with Searching for Healthcare IT Leadership – Uncovering Your IT Practices posted at Anticlue.

Bob Lieberman interviews the coaches and gives us Teaching Leadership Skills posted at Cultivating Creativity – Developing Leaders for the Creative Economy.

Have a wonderful and safe holiday!

It’s a new month and Dan McCarthy over at Great Leadership is hosting this month’s Leadership Development Carnival. The 36 posts are loaded with useful information and helpful ways to improve your skills.

Enjoy!

Over at The People Equation, Jennifer V. Miller advocates for “management by asking” in her post “Socrates Was On to Something”:

Wally Bock presents Once Upon a Time posted at Three Star Leadership Blog. ” Lots of things have changed since I started in business. But the most important thing has stayed the same.”

Learn how to get the most out of blogs, books, seminars and other resources, whether the subject is management, leadership or any other self-improvement effort, the process for using the information is the same. Miki Saxon presents How to Improve Your Management Skill at MAPping Company Success.

Managers can’t let fear rule their decision making – Sharlyn Lauby presents Handling Workplace Retaliation posted at HR Bartender.

Mary Jo Asmus presents 7 Ways to Enjoy Others at Work posted at Aspire-CS.

Jane Perdue presents A Lobby Display of True Leader Colors posted at Get Your Leadership BIG On!.

If you want to really understand your culture, take time to understand the underlying rules: spoken and unspoken. Steve Roesler presents Want to Influence? Know the Norms posted at All Things Workplace.

Mark Stelzner presents SHRM 2010: Observations & Conclusions posted at Inflexion Point.

Alice Snell presents Public Sector Hiring Reform posted at Taleo Blog – Talent Management Solutions.

Art Petty presents Leadership Caffeine: Prepare Your Mind to Conquer Presentation Anxiety posted at Management Excellence.

Kevin W. Grossman presents Valuing meaningful work always plays better to the bottom line. posted at HRmarketer.com Blog.

Nothing is more inspiring than a noble purpose. Do you see your work as a “job” or a mission? You will be surprised how easy it is to make your purpose special. Mike Henry Sr. presents Inspiring Purpose posted at Lead Change Group.

Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh has built an amazing culture. Most of us can learn a lot from what he did and how he did it. But there is one lesson we should NOT learn from Zappos. Anne Perschel presents What NOT to Learn from Zappos posted at Germane Insights.

Leaders make many decisions each day. What factors do you consider when making decisions? Becky Robinson presents Factors in Decision Making posted at Mountain State University LeaderTalk.

7 useful tips to take leadership repertoire to the next level: Utpal Vaishnav presents How To Caffeinate Your Leadership Repertoire? posted at Utpal Writes.

A fun post – a poem that links how we work with what we are seeing in the World Cup Football matches. David Zinger presents Working Zingers: Work as the World Cup posted at David Zinger Employee Engagement.

There is always friction between a unit and its higher headquarters, no matter the organization. In “Those Idiots Up At HQ,” Leader Business examines the firing of General McChrystal from a personal perspective. Tom Magness presents Those Idiots Up At HQ posted at Leader Business.

NY Times best selling author, Chuck Martin, shares his Management Tip, Play to your strengths, in this ten minute podcast. Nick McCormick presents Play to People?s Strengths posted at Joe and Wanda on Management.

With leadership development being defined and implemented differently from business to business, it is often difficult to find or create measurement around LDP programs. In this post I describe 7 approached to measure the leadership programs you create. Benjamin McCall presents Metrics of Leadership: 7 measurements for Leadership Development, at REThink HR.

This post links together England’s demise in the World Cup, Boris Groysberg’s new book on talent and performance, and whether what applies (may apply) in football / soccer applies in business too. Jon Ingham presents Chasing Stars and Socialism at Social Advantage.

Highlights an eye-opening study which finds that Talent Management systems are gender-biased and talk about what to do about it. Meg Bear presents Are your leadership competencies gender biased? posted at TalentedApps.

The ultimate motivations comes from knowing who we are and courageously acting upon that knowledge. What will you do in your “moment of truth”? Janna Rust presents Purposeful Leadership: Your Moment of Truth: What Will You Choose? posted at Purposeful Leadership.

Laura Schroeder presents Is Attrition a Key Component of Retention? posted at Working Girl.

Anna Farmery presents The Life Cycle of Thinking posted at The Engaging Brand.

Many managers don’t trust that their systems hire and keep people that will make good decisions. They “solve” this problem by giving staff no authority, which isn’t a solution. John Hunter presents Trust Your Staff to Make Decisions posted at Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog.

Research from i4cp/AMA reveal four key practices all companies should follow when developing global leaders. Erik Samdahl presents Four Key Practices for Developing Global Leaders posted at Productivity Blog.

Michael Lee Stallard presents The Need to Respect Legitimate Authority and One’s Colleagues posted at Michael Lee Stallard.

Nissim Ziv presents Problem Solving Interview posted at Job Interview & Career Guide.

There are lessons we can all learn from General Stanley McChrystal’s recent resignation. Sometimes choosing our words wisely is more important than sharing opinions. Kathy C presents Lessons Learned from General Stanley McChrystal posted at The Thriving Small Business.

Wise Bread presents Freedom From the Day Job posted at Wisebread.

This post speaks of reducing the clutter in Leadership and Learning & keeping things simple. Dominic Rajesh presents Clutter-free Learning and Leadership posted at Dom’s Blog ….

Bob Lieberman presents Gas! posted at Cultivating Creativity – Leadership Development for the Creative Economy.

Eliminating negative has a greater impact than accentuated positive. The challenge is to eliminate the negative in a way that does not create more negative. Michael Cardus presents Eliminating Negative to Increase Positive posted at Create-Learning Team Building & Leadership Blog.

Friso presents An introduction to Corporate Performance Management | Everyone can manage posted at Everyone can Manage.

This post talks about how to manage others successfully in a nonprofit setting. But it can be applied to any business. Mazarine presents Wild Woman Fundraising Advanced Fundraising: Managing Others posted at Wild Woman Fundraising.

Bauhinia Solutions presents The Benefits of Coaching posted at Bauhinia Solutions.

Image credit: Great Leadership

As someone once said, “Learning how to learn is life’s most important skill.”

Daniel J. Boorstin’s comment enlarges on that with his definition of education, “Education is learning what you didn’t even know you didn’t know,” and C.S. Lewis believes in learning the hard way,

“Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.”

Douglas Adams tempers that idea, “Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.” Sadly true, otherwise history wouldn’t keep repeating itself.

There are as many way to learn as things to learn. Most people think of learning as finding answers, but Lloyd Alexander says, “We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.”

Book learning can never take the place of actually doing; an old Chinese proverb says it best, “Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand.”

Mortimer Adler reminds us, “The purpose of learning is growth, and our minds, unlike our bodies, can continue growing as long as we live.”

Very true, and Sarah Caldwell tells us how, “Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can – there will always come a time when you will be grateful you did.”

I hope you’ll take today’s quotes to heart and remember that learning is impossible if you start with preconceived notions or a closed mind.

Finally, listen to Mahatma Gandhi; hold his advice close, share it with those you care about and with those you don’t and follow it for the rest of your days. “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”

Image credit: srbichara on sxc.hu

Whether we choose to or not, we learn from the day we are born to the day we die. Sometimes our learning is conscious and intentional, but not always. Sometimes it makes us better people, sometimes not.

I have two stories for you today that clearly illustrate my premise.

Let’s start with the unconscious/unintentional (so we can end on a happier note).

For years before the global meltdown the media shared stories about the opulent lifestyle led by the wealthy and ultra wealthy. And the last couple of years the stories have revolved around how, instead of shopping until you drop, to shop so no one knows.

Two professors, HBS’ Roy Y.J. Chua and Xi Zou, an assistant professor at London Business School wondered if the people who lived this life style are different from the rest of us. Specifically, they asked,

“Does the availability of luxury goods “prime” individuals to be less concerned about or considerate toward others?”

Surprise, surprise; the answer is ‘yes’.

Next is a look at how intentional learning can not only reverse your life, but take you to rarified heights—as it did Shon R. Hopwood.

Hopwood was a mediocre bank robber—five banks over two years yielded only $200K— who spent a decade in prison. Now, prison is boring and a lot of felons spend their time in the library, specifically the law library, and Hopwood was one of them, but unlike most of them.

Mr. Hopwood spent much of that time in the prison law library, and it turned out he was better at understanding the law than breaking it. He transformed himself into something rare at the top levels of the American bar, and unheard of behind bars: an accomplished Supreme Court practitioner.

As you can see, unintentional learning can make you a jerk, whereas intentional learning can change your status from jerk to highly respected.

Image credit: pedroCarvalho on flickr

I love mondegreens and had the same reaction when I read an article about palindromes.

A palindrome is a word or phrase that is a mirror image of itself.

Numbers and dates, when they are written month-date-year, can do the same thing and that’s where it gets really interesting.

Saturday was a palindrome, 01/02/2010; the previous one occurred 10/02/2001 and before that?

“The amazing thing is, the one before that was Aug. 31, 1380 or 08-31-1380,” said Aziz Inan, a math puzzle enthusiast. “That was 620 years ago.”

(Here’s a link to Inan’s original article.)

Palindromes are far less frequent than the blue moon that occurred this New Year’s eve.

How infrequent?

“We have 12 palindrome dates this century; the rest of the world has 29,” he said. “Our 12 all will occur on the second day of the month. Theirs all occur in February.”

The U of Portland prof doesn’t limit this sort of thing to numbers. Take his name…
Print AZIZ in all capital letters; turn each Z on its side, and then swap the vowels. The result? His last name, INAN.

Now I have a suggestion for you. Share the articles with your kids in an age appropriate way, not just numbers, but words. Then play together with family birth dates, names, etc.—not as a lesson, but as fun.

As Inan says, it’s a great way to get kids interested in math and words.

Image credit: Aziz Inan

Hat tip to Dan McCarthy who cites a study by Deloitte and asks whether best practices are reality or illusion.

Their research shows that luck alone can account for above average corporate performance for many years.

I haven’t read the study, but I did read Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success and there is a lot to be said for luck.

Not the kind of luck that wins a lottery, but the “right time, right place” kind.

I saw it first hand during my 20+ years headhunting. When the economy was hot and talent scarce anybody could (and did) become recruiters because companies were so desperate they hired almost every warm body that even vaguely fit the opening.

During the expansion of the nineties, what percentage of a stock rising was skill and how much market serendipity? By the same token how much of the rise was leadership skill and how much a market that not only lifted all boats, but also responded with outsize euphoria to anything that sounded good?

This applies just as much to individuals.

I’m not saying that skill isn’t important or that it won’t offset many factors, but so is timing.

The problem is that you can’t choose when you are born or what the economy will be like when you reach the corner office or get that great promotion; you can only do your best with the situation in which you find yourself.

So when you do look to others for pointers and best practices, be sure that the economy and their circumstances are the same as yours or at least parallel enough to be worthwhile.

Think about it.

Image credit: TheBusyBrain on flickr

If you are a manager and despair at the quality of people that fill your entry level positions, not their attitude, but their skills and basic education, prepare for it to get worse.

Perhaps instead of ranting and whining about America’s loss of global leadership we should look closer to home for the real cause—US education.

The ethnic groups with the worst outcomes in school are African-Americans and Hispanics. The achievement gaps between these groups and their white and Asian-American peers are already large in kindergarten and only grow as the school years pass. These are the youngsters least ready right now to travel the 21st-century road to a successful life.

By 2050, the percentage of whites in the work force is projected to fall from today’s 67 percent to 51.4 percent. The presence of blacks and Hispanics in the work force by midcentury is expected to be huge, with the growth especially sharp among Hispanics.

No, whites and Asians aren’t smarter, but they do have socioeconomic advantages that are lacking for these minorities.

Advantages that our educational system and politicians at all levels are doing little to address.

It’s not always about money, although that is a part of it, nor is it about standardized tests that do little to improve true education, it’s about innovation and educating outside the box.

Harvard Graduate School of Education is creating a new doctoral degree to be focused on leadership in education. It’s the first new degree offered by the school in 74 years. The three-year course will be tuition-free and conducted in collaboration with faculty members from the Harvard Business School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. The idea is to develop dynamic new leaders who will offer the creativity, intellectual rigor and professionalism that is needed to help transform public education in the U.S.

Creativity, intellectual rigor, professionalism; this leadership isn’t just about visions and influence, it’s about creating people who will roll up their sleeves, get their hands dirty often toil in relative obscurity on the biggest problems facing this country.

Kathleen McCartney, the graduate school’s dean, explained one of the dilemmas that has hampered reform. “If you look at people who are running districts,” she said, “some come from traditional schools of education, and they understand the core business of education but perhaps are a little weak on the management side. And then you’ve got the M.B.A.-types who understand operations, let’s say, but not so much teaching and learning.”

Will it work?

Can the program make a difference quickly enough to change the current downward trajectory of our future?

Will other schools step up to the plate now or will they wait a decade or so and see how the Harvard program fares?

Does anybody care enough about what will happen in 20, 30, 40 years to accept a little discomfort now or should we just build more prisons?

Leadership Turn is ending; its last day is December 29. I’ve enjoyed writing it and our interaction since August 16, 2007 and I hope we can continue at my other blog where Leadership’s Future will carry on.

If you enjoy my views and writing, please join me at MAPping Company Success or subscribe via RSS or EMAIL.

Your comments—priceless

Image credit: dbking on flickr