I wrote the following in 2008 and, based on a number of recent questions/conversations I think it’s time to post it again, with some light editing.

The Vision Thing

Whether you head a company, run a department, or lead a team, you are responsible for that ‘vision thing’ as it applies to those subordinate to you.

It’s your responsibility to clearly identify (if you are the CEO/Prez/Owner) or articulate (at all other levels) the goals of the company.

Then it’s up to you to involve your people, working with them to turn those goals into specific actions for which they are responsible.

Most people are vaguely aware that work isn’t done in a vacuum, but often individuals, teams, or even departments, fail to truly understand the domino effect created by allowing their schedule to slip.

You can minimize this problem, and improve the quality of your workforce, by making certain that they understand how their own goals, their colleagues, those of the company and its customers and vendors interact.

The biggest rewards at all levels (using whatever incentives are available) should go to those who understand the company’s goals, and ethically do whatever is necessary to achieve them—especially when they put the company’s goals ahead of their own.

None of this is rocket science. 

It’s simple enough.

No matter your level, if you’re the boss communicating the vision to your team and aligning their actions with it is your responsibility.

Otherwise, the vision becomes a dream.

Image credit: Wordle

There is nothing like the various advice columns to keep you abreast of societies attitudes.

One I enjoy is called Social Qs; I like the insight it gives into people’s attitudes and questions of how to respond to everyday happenings.

Now and then the attitude behind a question will leave me speechless.

Like this one.

I took my sweet little dog for a walk. He got agitated by a cat sitting on a porch, pulled free of me and raced toward the house, knocking over (and breaking) a large ceramic urn. I acknowledge that I am partly responsible for the damage. But don’t the homeowners have some responsibility, too, letting their cat sit out in the open? —ANONYMOUS

Not surprising that it’s anonymous; few people would have the courage to admit to that level of self-absorption.

The Social Q response was perfect (as one would expect).

You break it; you bought it. “And your little dog, too,” growled the Wicked Witch of the West. The cat is free to sit on its porch with regal impunity.

No kidding. It wasn’t even roaming around, just sitting quietly, minding it’s business and watching the world go by.

Yet it’s the owners who are somehow responsible.

And that’s today’s attitude in a nutshell.

Flickr image credit: Stefano Mortellaro

If you’re an outsider, or even an insider prone to objectivity, Silicon Valley’s culture is a mess.

When I said as much to “Rick” his response caught me off guard — although it shouldn’t have.

“I wish they would just give it a rest. I am sick and tired of all the crap about wealth inequality, lack of diversity and privacy rights. That stuff is not my responsibility. I’ve worked hard and deserve my success; nobody went out of their way to help me. I’m sure not privileged and I figure if I can do it so can they.”

I’ve heard this before, but it still leaves me speechless.

Rick is white, nice looking, middle class family, raised around Palo Alto, graduated from UC Berkeley; his dad worked for Intel.

Yet he doesn’t see himself as privileged.

Over the years I’ve known thousands of Ricks.

And therein lies the true problem.

Because it’s hard to change that which doesn’t exist.

Image credit: Dagny Mol

Yesterday’s post focused on the difference between mindful and mindless social media usage as private individuals.

The problem is more far-reaching when the person speaking heads or publicly represents the company, whether as an employee or celebrity spokesperson.

Foot-in-mouth disease isn’t anything new.

What is new is its global reach and immortal status.

The problem is best summed up in a comment from Lee Rainie, a Pew Research Center specialist in the social influence of digital technologies.

“Despite all of the warnings, all of the evidence to the contrary and all the material floating around proving otherwise, people still think that when they’re sitting alone typing something out, they know exactly who their audience is. But the specific character of digital information is that it’s replicable, repeatable, and there are lots of outlets now that are interested in these stories.”

One further warning.

The “outlets” mentioned above — old and new media, pundits, individuals and trolls — like nothing better than to take that private email, joking tweet or casual image and spin it into something that supports or illustrates their own viewpoint — no matter how badly they distort it or how warped the application.

Image credit: US Geological Survey

Today is a day of links, rather than paraphrasing previous posts and a new article from the NY Times that’s garnering a lot of attention.

In 2006 I wrote An Employee Dilemma—What Would You Do?— be sure to read the comments, because they are critical in juxtaposition to the Times article.

The article is How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life.

Sacco is actually one of many whose mindless actions on social media provided repercussions beyond anything they could have imagined.

Of course, imagining repercussions requires mindfulness.

As does social media.

Image credit: Jason Howie

Three of the inviolate rules for a great culture are accepted and respected.

• Tell the truth.
• Show initiative.
• Care

The other three not so much — especially the last one.

• Make a mess.
• Take responsibility.
• Apologize.

But for a culture to be great culture they must apply universally, not selectively

Messes of all sizes happen; they are a fact of life.

People taking responsibility for the messes they make are not.

Apologies for the messes are less common still — especially as people move up the ladder.

But apologies are a necessity — as Intuit CEO Brad Smith points out.

Apologies person to person enable trust; keep teams strong and productivity humming.

Apologies from companies to customers also enable trust and earn a second chance.

Assuming, of course, that the apologies are authentic.

Image credit: pshutterbug

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

I rarely have time to read my Quora feed, but now and then I see a question that pulls me up short as happened when this question from last fall surfaced.

I am an entrepreneur about to get married. How do I make sure my future wife doesn’t benefit financially from our union?  

My reaction was that his fiancée should run as fast as possible in the other direction, since this guy doesn’t seem to have either the understanding of what marriage is or the maturity to build a successful one. (Most of the responses echoed my reaction.)

Thinking further, I wondered whether this entrepreneur honored what Matt Weeks calls The Startup Social Contract at his company, since he obviously didn’t with his wife-to-be.

Marriage, after all, is the ultimate startup and the risks are even greater when an entrepreneur is involved.

Image credit: HikingArtist

Mixed in with all the bad stuff over the last few weeks of 2014 were some feel-good stories to provide a bit of balance.

One of them that you probably missed was truly surprising.

After all, how many CEOs give back their bonus because they don’t think they deserve and say so publicly?
But that’s exactly what Rick Holley, CEO of Plum Creek Timber Co., did.

He returned 44,445 restricted stock units worth nearly two million dollars.

Holley said, “he does not believe that he should receive such an award unless Plum Creek’s stockholders see an increase in their investment return.”

The board members were surprised, to say the least, CEOs do not refuse, let alone give back, bonuses.

“I told them I wasn’t asking for their approval. They had given these to me and I appreciated their confidence in me, but I didn’t feel comfortable taking them… This has been a year where total shareholder returns are down 10% or more. It just wasn’t the right thing to do.”

And while it’s obvious to any investor or employee that not taking a bonus in a bad year is “the right thing to do” it apparently came as a revelation to those with fiduciary responsibility for all stakeholders.

Apparently the board didn’t realize Holley possesses a trait that’s rarely seen these days, especially where money is concerned.

It’s called integrity.

Image credit: Plum Creek Timber Co.

Does your company have soul?

Or is it so focused on profit that there is no room for anything else?

What does it mean for a company to have soul?

That question is addressed by a Belgium, Frederic Laloux, who quit McKinsey when he found himself miserable and out of touch with his clients.

 “The work I had loved so much was work I simply couldn’t do any longer. I came to the realization that I was in a very different place than the executive teams of the large corporations with whom I had been working. I just couldn’t work with these big organizations anymore. They felt too soulless and unhealthy to me, too trapped in a rat race of just trying to eke out more profits.”

Wondering what gave a company soul fueled two years of research that resulted in Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness.

Not surprisingly, Laloux found that trust ranked at the top of managerial attitudes that create soul.

Trust, Mr. Laloux found, is perhaps the most powerful common denominator in the companies he studied. “If you view people with mistrust and subject them to all sorts of controls, rules and punishments,” he writes, “they will try to game the system, and you will feel your thinking is validated. Meet people with practices based on trust, and they will return your trust with responsible behavior. Again, you will feel your assumptions were validated.”

In other words, bosses (like most others) get what they expect.

While trust can’t be faked, it is trust a function of individual bosses, from the most junior all the way up to the CEO.

That means that even if you are working in a soulless situation you can run your own organization with trust, integrity and soul.

Flickr image credit: Lars Plougmann

In 1992 I saw a cartoon with the following statement (credited as Pot-Shots #5585, but I can’t find it on the Net).

I WANT ALL MY RIGHTS IMMEDIATELY,
But have no urgent need of my obligations.

I was reminded of it about a decade later after hearing a 15 year-old testify in a community meeting on having a curfew.

She was against it and her reasoning was as follows, “I’m old enough to get pregnant, so I’m old enough to decide when to go home.”

And I was just reminded of it again when I was told by a manager, “I’m the boss. It’s not up to me to show them the ropes; if they don’t get it I can fire them.”

Listen around; I’m sure you’ll hear multiple examples of the original idea, whatever the words or application.

Then listen to yourself.

Have you/do you invoke the same sentiment?

If yes, you may want to rethink your approach and tweak your MAP.

Flickr image credit: BK