The Motivational/Performance Difference Between Batman and Superman...

A classic quote from Sports Illustrated on confidence:

"Greg Harden, a long-time employee of the Michigan football program who advises and counsels Michigan players, says Drew Henson (the favored child who competed with Tom Brady for the Michigan quaterback job before Brady became a megastar) was like Superman, Tom Brady was like Batman.

Batman doesn't have any superpowers, but as Harden says, "Batman believes he can whip Superman's ass."

Pretty interesting quote on confidence.  Read the whole article on who Tom Brady was before stardom here. 

Why I'm In This Game...

Capitalist Note:  I'm posting this story again as I reflect at the end of the year.  I heard again from the candidate below and while he missed his record year from 2010, he again went over the million dollar mark in 2011 and blew out the previous record by 40-45%.  Great hires make you feel good.  Here's to a fast start to 2012 for all of us...

Some days suck.  Lots of days suck, as a matter of fact, but you've got to keep it in perspective... I got an email yesterday that gave me that perspective.

Why do I do what I do?  For the payoff, my friends.  What type of payoff, you ask?  For me, it's the payoff that says I was part of getting something right that lots of others would struggle to see.

Case in point - I got an email yesterday from an Account Executive I was involved in hiring a while back.  While the AE had some background in sales, he had no industry experience and would have been considered a risky hire by most.   The AE in question shot me a note of thanks yesterday, saying that not only did he reach quota for the year, but he blew up the prior all-time high by about 50% (my math, not his).  The quota all the AE's had repeatedly bitched about (A million dollars?  There's no way an AE at this company can get that...NO WAY!!) had been achieved by a mere mortal.

A mere mortal with off the charts persistence and the skin of a rhino.

He emailed me to say thanks for giving him the chance to prove in to the role.  At the time he was interviewing, we had a change in sales leadership, so he was in a state of flux for about 3-4 weeks.  The dude called me every day for three weeks to check in.  I told him I was fine with him checking in, and he continued to do it - EVERY DAY.  Lots of days I didn't pick up.  He kept calling.  He wanted the job, and the behavior was exactly what we needed in the role.

The new VP of Sales started in his role.  I pushed the candidate to him and told him about the behavioral traits.  I gave him a nickname so the VP of Sales would have an emotional attachment.  That nickname was "floorburn", because I told my Sales leader that on a team of 10, there was room for an experiment with no industry experience, and this candidate was that guy:  a guy who might not have the pedigree, but would out-hustle and out-work those around him.  The VP of Sales smiled and said he'd take the interview even though the background wasn't what he really desired.  

He came back from the interview and made an offer.

My candidate accepted in under 1 second.  The rest, as they say is history.

Looking back, I didn't do anything special. I valued and pitched what could make the AE great, but the special traits were his, not mine.  I kept an open mind and made a placement that made a difference. That's my job, and I'm OK at it.

But being involved in that kind of story and getting that email from the AE?  Priceless.  That's why I'm in the game.

One million dollars in recurring revenue.  Many said it couldn't be done.  A non-traditional candidate nicknamed "floorburn" delivered it.

Keep an open mind out there.

Quit Your HR Job: What Would You Spend 10,000 Hours Mastering If You Had the Chance?

By now, you've read the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell or Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin - or read the summaries and understand the concept developed by the research of Anders Ericsson that says it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to master any skill. 

You've probably daydreamed about it:  "What would I choose to become world class in if money and time were no object?"

Check that.  Most of us haven't daydreamed that because putting 10,000 hours in on any one thing is a crazy, hard grind.

But there are people out there who quit everyting to chase the dream of world-class mastery presented in Outliers.  Meet Dan McLaughlin, who is currently midstream in his quest to quit it all and play so much golf in a "deliberate practice" way that he'll be able to go pro.  More from BusinessWeek:

"After turning 30 last year, he (McLaughlin) quit his job as a photographer for a marketing company, built a website, hired a coach, and decided to live off the $100,000 he had saved. He’s now on the “Dan Plan,” which involves golfing for 10,000 hours—which will take six and a half years of full-time commitment—with the goal of becoming one of the roughly 250 men on the PGA Tour out of the more than 60 million golfers in the world.

In July, McLaughlin passed his 1,700th hour. His instructor, Christopher Smith (ironically, the speed golf champion of the world), decided McLaughlin would start at the hole and work his way out. Slowly. So McLaughlin spent the first three weeks doing nothing but putting from three feet away. Smith wouldn’t let him progress to bigger clubs until he’d mastered the small ones. He had only four clubs in his bag—he was stuck on mastering the eight-iron. When he told people at parties that he was a full-time nonprofessional golfer, and they didn’t walk away, they often asked his handicap: “I say, ‘Oh, I don’t have one. I’ve been practicing for 15 months, but I’ve never played a game.’ People assume a slight bit of insanity.”

Ericsson believes that only deliberate practice—intensely focused time spent trying to improve—causes progress. “Most people on a job spend 10,000 hours and they are at the level they started out,” he says. “You can count the hours people drive and you’re not going to see a high correlation to skill. You have to try to stretch yourself and attain higher levels of control.”   

To become world class, you just don't start playing a round of golf.  You do deliberate practice as described above.  He's never played a round of golf in 1,700 hours of practice.

Think about that for a second.  Mental discipline and patience, anyone?

So, what would you chase if you had 10,000 full-funded hours of practice and didn't have to worry about feeding the family?

For most of us, the answer would be nothing.  Too much of a grind.

Retention of HiPos: You Don't Have to Tell Them They're HiPo to Retain Them...

I'm pretty much on the record in favor of telling high potential employees (HiPos) that are part of a formal succession plan that "they're on the list".  John Sullivan gave 20 reasons last week over at ERE why releasing the names in some fashion makes sense.  It's a good list, if a little long.  The length makes it comprehensive, so check it out.

But - what do you do if you agree with the concept of telling people they're on the list, but your culture won't allow it?

You don't have to tell the HiPos that they're part of a Succession Plan to retain them long-term.  But doing nothing - having no special plan for the HiPo - is a sucker's play.

Bottom line - you better run, not walk, to pair the HiPo with someone that gives a #### about their development and about keeping them at the company.  For some companies, that might mean a formal mentoring program.  For others, it might mean a customized development plan that gives the HiPo some access to training that others don't get.

Yes, Dorthy...  Both mentoring and customized development plans are common components of Succession Plans.  You can run the programs and include people without the formality of telling people they're on a list.  But you're really telling them by including them in these types of programs.  Still, stopping short of telling people that they're part of a list is the preferred approach by many.

The bigger question is this...  The small to medium size company in America generally doesn't have a succession plan, nor do they have a formal mentoring program or the availability of customized development plans and the dollars it take to run them.  What do those HR pros do?

Match the HiPo up with someone who cares, preferably their manager or the skip-level director.  Talk to them about what "being interested" looks like.  Conversations about what the person wants to do, special projects to develop them and an eye on accelerated comp goes a long way.

Informal Succession Planning = Giving a ####.  Just a little bit.  If you don't care enough to recognize the HiPo in some way, then you get what get. 

G5 Leadership Development: A Free Year of On-Demand Training for HR Capitalist Readers...

Hey Kids - This month, G5 Leadership is teaming up with the HR Capitalist and Fistful of Talent for a webcast/Leadership mashup on how to help your HR team and managers bridge the perception gap between how a manager thinks the employee is doing and how the employee actually perceives their own performance.  We call it the 5 Faces Your Managers See During Performance Reviews...(click to register)

Think about that. Mind-bending, isn’t it?  No?

Then it's still pretty freaking useful... And this webcast includes an offer below that's too good for you to pass up.  Keep reading...

On Tuesday, November 15th, Tim Sackett and I will break it all down for you at G5 and cover:

• A comprehensive breakdown of the five most common faces managers will see in Performance Reviews - including the Star, the Diva, the Deflector, the 9 to 5 and the Upwardly Mobile.
• How to identify each of the faces across individuals in your organization and team.
• The unspoken realities you have to address as an organization to make sure each face is engaged from a performance perspective.
• A rundown of survival strategies to engage each of the five faces and get what you need - both out of a performance conversation and through higher performance moving forward.

Don’t miss this street-smart session designed to help your managers cut through the smoke and get to what’s real related to performance management. 

This session is covered by the Fistful of Talent guarantee: 60% of the time it works every time. Promise.

Now for the big finish.  Because G5 and The HR Capitalist dig each other, if you sign up for this webinar you'll actually receive a free one-year subscription to G5 Leadership.  Go check them out now, andhit this page for the speakers they feature which shows you all you need to know: Speakers/trainers/coaches you get access to from a leadership perspective when you sign up include David Allen (of Getting Things Done fame), Marshall Goldsmith, Bob Sutton, Dave Ulrich, Guy Kawasaki and more.  

I'm a huge believer in G5, thus the relationship and offer.  

Attend this leadership session and get a one-year subscription to G5 Leadership for your trouble.  Pass the offer around your company, because the G5 sessions cover all the leadership/manager development areas you need, and let's face it, you're not doing enough from a leadership development perspective. So use this offer, get yourself and your team signed up for the webcast and get a year's worth of world class, on-demand leadership training for your trouble.  

Nice...

Join Kris, Tim and G5 Leadership for "The 5 Faces Your Managers See During Performance Reviews":

• Date: November 15, 2011
• Time: 11 am, ET
• Join us: Register now, use the code g5FOT to get comped and receive your free year's subscription to G5 Leadership (HR Pros - use this around your company - all managers can use the same offer, just use the code provided...)

Unemployment Discrimination: Monster.com Has It Right, People (Job Boards are PLATFORMS)...

Repeat after me: Job Boards are PLATFORMS, not arbitrators of quality, fairness or morality.

What's a platform?  A platform is where the masses can come and use technology in a variety of ways.  Think Facebook, think Amazon.

While not as broad as Facebook or Amazon, Monster.com and CareerBuilder are platforms.  They're present to help companies get the message out about their open jobs. Morons use Facebook a good bit.  Guess what?  Morons use Monster.com as well, but that doesn't mean that Monster should bow to pressure like the following outlined over at the Huffington Post:

"For the past several months one labor advocacy group has continuously hammered companies that list job postings discriminating against the jobless.

National Employment Law Project on Wednesday lobbed its latest attack on CareerBuilder.com, which NELP says won't stop posting ads that stipulate applicants must be "currently employed."

"Employers and firms continue to post ads that refuse to even consider the unemployed, regardless of their qualifications," executive director of NELP, Christine Owens, said in a statement. "It's unfair to workers and bad for the economy. We need to be putting Americans back to work, not stigmatizing and prolonging their unemployment."

NELP pointed to five recent listings on CareerBuilder.com with discriminatory language. The unveiling of the job listings by NELP comes just one day after senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) sent a letter to CareerBuilder.com CEO Matt Ferguson asking the website to prohibit companies form posting job ads that discriminate against applicants based on employment status."

CareerBuilder looks to be on the fence, but other job boards are committing one way or another:

"Last month, Indeed.com announced that it would start blocking ads excluding the unemployed from openings saying, "Indeed.com strives to proved the best job search experience for job seekers. Our policy is to exclude job listings that do not comply with federal or local laws related to discriminatory hiring practices as well as job listings that discriminate against the unemployed."

Also last month, about 250,000 Americans sent petitions to Congress opposing hiring practices that discriminate against the unemployed.

Another website, Monster.com, has refused to take down its job postings with discriminatory language, and has stated that while it opposes discrimination, the company "believe[s] it is the responsibility of the employers themselves, rather than Monster, to decide what they say in their job postings and how they want their company to be viewed."

Good for Monster.com.  It's a PLATFORM, people.  Those companies just did you a favor by sharing how caveman-like they are by showing their true colors.  You should be thanking Monster.com for sticking to it's guns, not whining about it and expecting the government to put Monster into a legislative full nelson.

Hate the game.  Don't hate a job board that will show you how moronic .02% of the companies listed are.  Monster.com just did you a solid.

PODCAST: Hiring Sales Talent: Why Would They Want to Work For Your Crappy Little Company?

Do you work for an upstart/startup company?  Are you about to hire your first sales professional?  Do you see yourself hiring sales pros in the coming months and years?

Then you, my friend, need to either watch this video or download the series as a recurring podcast. The show is called This Week in Venture Capital, and the host is Mark Suster, who some of you know from the blog Both Sides of the Table.  

This week's version was about hiring the right sales talent in your company.  My favorite point, which occurs at the 14:18 mark, is where Mark and the guests start talking about whether your small startup should hire a VP of Sales or a regular salesperson as your first sales professional, to which Mark asks the following question related to the conventional wisdom that you need to hire a sales leader/VP as the first person in:

"Why would they want to work for your shitty little company?"

Ah, yes.  Candor.

Fair question, and one that makes you lean quickly to the fact that you need to match talent/attitudes/expectations to the life stage of your company.  Other great points in the conversation include:

16:00 Determining a good sales guy from a bad one

19:00 Never wanting to join a club that doesn’t want them as a member

20:15 Mark’s secret sales interview trick

23:00 Make sure to listen more than you talk

36:00 Sales people only care about money

41:00 Suster: Paying a little upfront and then withholding until they get paid

42:00 The simpler the comp plan, the easier it is to see the shenanigans

47:00 Group pipeline calls and how effective they are

51:00 One more tip from Suster on the sales world

73:00 Staying on top of who is in the sales pipeline

76:00 Mark: “Don’t hire sales people too quickly, don’t hire bigpeople. Be smart, think quickly.”

HR people need to know more about sales than they do.  Even if you think you're an expert, download this and listen.  You'll be glad you did.  It's money.

EMPLOYMENT BRANDING MBA: Why Nobody Cares Whether YOU Like Your Alma Mater's Football Uniforms...

If you're a real college football fan, you probably caught the new Univerisity of Georgia uniforms this last weekend, pictured below and to the right and almost universally panned as "sucking".  More from the Birmingham News:

"When I first got to a TV set for the Georgia-Boise State game I thought the Galveston Gauchos of the Texas-Arkansas Indoor Arena Independent United League had joined the SEC. What ghastly uniforms. Listening alternately to the pregame shows on the Georgia and the LSU networks while leaving Auburn, there was much attention devoted to the uniforms Georgia and Oregon were wearing, as well as Boise's shoes.

The radio guys didn't do them justice, how ugly they were. Especially Georgia's. Somebody said, "They'll grow on you." So does fungus if you don't scrub the tub. So many traditionalists among the Georgia financial supporters, for whom the occasional move to silver britches was a jolt, surely this wardrobe choice won't well serve Mark Richt."

Of course, what all the old people (which is to say anyone who serves as a writer, commentator, or someone with enough influence for you and to be aware that they think these uniforms suck) are missing is the following:

The uniforms aren't for the old people.  The uniforms are for the young people.  They're about recruiting.  

Young people love stuff that old people hate - the more you hate them, old people, the better the recruiting advantage the uniforms are going to provide on the recruiting trail.  If you don't hate them with a passion, the school didn't go far enough.

Recruiting 101.  Think I'm joking?  The University of Oregon started this trend with the help of Nike. The more shock there is, the more 5-star recruits will be attracted to your brand, regardless if you've ever won or not.  More on the strategic plan of ugly uniforms at Oregon from Grantland:

"But back in Beaverton, the Nike designers did their part, using the Ducks program as part laboratory, part showroom.

Blocky, standard letters became sleek, modern fonts. Wings on the shoulders? Diamond designs on the knees? Silver shoes worn at Southern Cal? "Nothing," Nike creative director Todd Van Horne said, "is off the table." The paint for the dark green helmets was made with glass beads and cost $2,400 a gallon. There were fall fashion shows.

"They look hatched from an alien pod," Bachman wrote in the Oregonian, "sent to Earth to seek first downs and souvenir sales."

This, Michael Smith wrote in the SportsBusiness Journal, was part of "Nike's 15-year project to build Oregon football into a national power largely on the strength of marketing and branding."

Tradition? Tradition is great where it's a sellable, marketable commodity. Alabama can sell tradition. Penn State can sell tradition. Michigan can sell tradition. At those places, tradition is the differentiation, but at the schools where it's not? They have to go in the opposite direction. And no one has done that better, or more consciously, than Nike and Oregon, which for the purposes of this conversation are essentially one and the same.

Oregon's tradition at this point is the overtly embraced lack of tradition. Change.

"We wanted to be out there, to be purposely controversial," Hatfield told Smith. "That's a part of what we do that's not very well understood. A lot of the sports writers at first hated it" — fans, too, by the way, and still do — "and that's actually what we wanted. If you're purposely trying to stir up the nest and increase visibility, you want them saying something."

Nobody cares what you think about the uniforms.  If you're reading this blog, you're way too old to have an opinion that matters related to the branding of the unform of your alma mater.

You're the past.  The recruits are the future.  The uniforms will get uglier until we win a BCS championship.

Your job?  Keep buying tickets and making donations.  And shut up with your negative response to change, already...

BACK TO THE FUTURE: A Labor Day Note To My Boys...

My sons aren't really old enough to have this conversation yet, but they're getting close.

When we eventually have the conversation, we'll do it every Labor Day and call it the "Labor Day Gut Check"...

"Hi Kids!

A chipper intro, I know.. Labor Day is a time to relax (that's why I'm writing a blog post on Labor Day, right?), but it's also a time to reflect.

Your career = your ability to think differently from the pack.  There's a million careers you can choose, but once you choose and get into your profession, you're going to be a face in the crowd.  One of many.

Think like everyone else and wait around to be told what to do, and you're a commodity.  You'll have work as long as things are going well.  But, if things start going bad (for your company, for the economy), you'll be at the mercy of your employer.  How many commodities can your company afford to carry?  If things are going bad, less than they have today.  Layoffs and RIFs ensue.  

Creativity is the only safety net you have.  When times get tough, your ability to think about the profession/business you're in and add value that others can't (or are too lazy to provide) means job secruity.  You're more valuable when you use your creativity to look different than others.  It's also a hell of a lot more fun...

Seth Godin calls it being an artist.  Regardless of your profession, you should have a lot of artist in you.  Seth also says that being irreplaceable is about shipping.  You probably need to read his book to get the full flavor.  It's mandatory reading before you get out of high school.

Go compete.  Do it in a classy way that doesn't downgrade others, but don't allow yourself to get drawn back into the pack.  That's what unions would have you do.   Be creative and ship, and you'll never need a union (or a recruiter, btw) to find work."

I know.  Your dad is a giant pain in the ###.  Deal with it.

Is a Presentation From Tony Hsieh of Zappos Enough? (#HRFL11)

Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh keynoted HR Florida this morning.  Before I go off on a rant, let me say this – I’m a fan of HR Florida, Zappos and Tony Hsieh.

Tony Hsieh has done it – he’s built a great company and a culture at Zappos that can actually generate business and opportunity unrelated to the core business of his company – by talking to people about culture.   He’s a great speaker and the thoughts he shares on culture, building a company and chasing a bigger purpose are compelling.  I’m a buyer when he speaks.

HR Florida is a great conference.  I put it in my top two in the HR space:  HR Florida and the HR Technology Conference, which will be in Vegas in October.  Both shows do a great job with content, logistics and the thousand details that go into putting on a production of this size (HR Florida has 1,500+ attendees this year and in addition to Tony, also has Daniel Pink coming in on Wednesday).

The problem, as it so often is, is what people do once Tony pumps them up to change the world.  You want to be like Zappos.  I want to be like Zappos.  Let’s start with a couple of simple tweets I put out this morning while listening to Tony to see if you’re ready to do what it takes:

“Test for building your version of the Zappos culture: Are you willing to list every employee you have that’s active on Twitter on your company website?  #hrfl11”

“Be real and you have nothing to fear – Tag for transparency at Zappos.  #hrfl11”

What about it Sparky?  Are you willing to put up the 500 most active employees you have on twitter on a rolling widget on your corporate website and control none of the message?

No? Then you’ve got some work to do before you can be like Zappos.  Apparently people are real in your company – so real that you can’t tolerate the transparency of the exercise described.

If you won’t show off your team members in that way, it’s usually because you think some of them are not ready for prime time.  And that’s the point.  The naysayers to me claiming that a keynote from Tony isn’t enough will say, “Kris, Tony doesn’t advocate being like Zappos.  He thinks you should build it in the way you want.”

The naysayers are right.  But I suspect Tony would be a huge advocate of doing whatever it takes to reset your culture and have actual values you are willing to hire and fire by.  That doesn’t mean you have to copy what Zappos has done.  It does mean that you should take down the plaque that espouses Integrity, Communication and Teamwork and see if they really drive your culture.  Of if they’re just hollow values written on paper that no one can recite, and certainly no one lives by.

The real issue with having a supernova like Tony deliver a keynote at a great show like HR Florida is the lost opportunity.  Other keynotes are simply aspirational.  They're present to pump you up, often with stories that have nothing to do with HR.  Not Tony.  Culture is in the wheelhouse of what HR is supposed to own.  But no one really knows how to get started.  How do you reset a culture that's driven by your founder being around for the last 20 years and doing it the way he (and his wife) wanted?  Scary stuff for most HR pros to think about taking on.

I’d love to see a conference track after a Zappos keynote that really challenges and develops those who are interested in taking the pain that’s necessary to reset their corporate culture.  I’d love to see that track arm HR pros with tools that can help them make the case.  First conference that really tries to dig in and make HR pros who volunteer uncomfortable after a big meaty keynote wins.  Big.

Tony Hsieh: +1.  HR Florida: +1.  What HR pros do next after hearing Tony speak:  Not registering a score at this time.

(check out all the tweets from HR Florida by searching the hashtag #hrfl11)