The Dirty South, NASCAR and This - All The Proof You Need the World Is Now Global...

You think the world isn't global everywhere?  You better think again - this picture I snapped reminded me of the reality over the weekend:

That's right - a pickup truck in Birmingham, AL.  You expect the small decal on the back windshield - a Jeff Gordon NASCAR sticker.  What you don't expect is a donkey-sized Manchester United sticker, and you especially don't expect both together.  

But that's the world your employees see these days.  A pickup.  NASCAR.  Premiere League Soccer.  +whatever else they sprinkle in from a shrinking globe fueled by a 24/7, always on media world.

Look at the stickers in your parking lot - you'll probably see some surprises.

Stuff the Capitalist (aka KD) Likes: White Guys Giving Bad High-Fives Inside Your Company

Who am I?  Who cares?  Good questions.  It's my site, so I'm going to tap into Fridays once in awhile by telling you more about who I am - via a "Stuff I Like" series.  Nothing too serious, just exploring the micro-niche that resides at the base of all of our lives.  Potshots encouraged in the comments.

There's nothing better than white guys giving bad High-Fives inside your company.  

Note: My name is Kristian Patrick Dunn. I'm a white guy. Irish-American, even. It's OK for me to have this opinion. 

For the rest of my thoughts I why I love this so much - click over to my post on topic at Fistful of Talent, where you'll find the following featured:

1. Bro activity - bad posturing as you give the high five outside the conference room.

2. Puddy from Seinfeld - as an example of asking for the high-five, a sure sign that you shouldn't be giving it.

3. Height and gender challenges with high-fives - now derailing this simple team-building activity at a company near you.

If you're a white guy or love a white guy who's reaching with his use of the high-five, click over at take a look at this post now.

Still, when a white guy gives a bad high-five, I can't....look....away....

BEST BUY: We Ended ROWE/Work From Home Because It Defines Leadership as 100% Delegation....

You probably saw all the on-line drama recently about Yahoo's CEO ending remote/work from home arrangements.  Lots said about that one with people agreeing/disagreeing across the board.  

What a lot of people missed was that Best Buy took a similar, if not as extreme step, by ending it's ROWE program last week.  ROWE stands for Results Only Work Environment, and under ROWE an employee can work whenever and from wherever they want.  While Best Buy didn't eliminate working from home entirely, it now has to be negotiated on a case-by case basis rather than existing as a right at Best Buy HQ.

The CEO of Best Buy, Hubert Joly, took a lot of heat for his decision, so he came out with some clarifying notes.  More from Joly via the Star Tribune:

"Finally, there is the execution of leadership. This, of course, is closely related to Best Buy’s recently cancelled Results Only Work Environment (ROWE). This program was based on the premise that the right leadership style is always delegation. It operated on the assumption that if an employee’s objectives were agreed to, the manager should always delegate to the employee how those objectives were met.

Well, anyone who has led a team knows that delegation is not always the most effective leadership style. If you delegate to me the job of building a brick wall, you will be disappointed in the result! Depending on the skill and will of the individual, the right leadership style may be coaching, motivating or directing rather than delegating. A leader has to pick the right style of leadership for each employee, and it is not one-size-fits-all, as the ROWE program would have suggested."

So Joly says that 100% delegation once objectives are set is madness.  Interesting.  In the spirit of equal time, check out this link from the founders of ROWE responding to what they consider to be ROWE myths, including the assumption that's it's all delegation, all the time.

Take a look and soak - it's an interesting conversation.  My gut tells me that the delegation angle is window dressing, and when times are bad, people want butts (plural!) in seats.

The Most Messed Up Chart You'll Ever See Related to Wage Increase History in America...

You want to see some #@**?

Take a look at the chart below and let's talk about it after the jump...

Five Observations:

1. This chart shows the percent change year over year of wages for hourly and non-supervisory employees.  Although there's some other things that can go into this, this is basically a chart that shows relative merit increases for these workers.  I'm assuming that workers giving themselves a raise by jumping companies is factored into this, but I'm also assuming that people losing their jobs and going to work elsewhere for less money is also reflected in these numbers.

2. Year over year increases in earnings were at an all time low in 2012.  Welcome to the new world order, sparky.

3. There's a huge increase from 1965 to 1975.  What are the reasons?  A spike in the Military complex related to the Vietnam war?  Unions having more power than they do today?  Hippies smoking dope and making peace, not war by handing out more coin?  Wait - those people weren't employed at that time.  Your thoughts on the reasons are welcome in the comments.

4. I'd buy a Regan shirt right now if you put it in front of me with a catchy, anti-left slogan, but this certainly doesn't help his legacy in my mind.  

5. This is one of the scariest charts I've ever seen.

I'm completely freaked out.  The lines way up at the top to the left?  No China messing with the US, a war going on and my parents driving a big #$@ maroon LTD that I backed into a car as a kid.

Unrelated?  I'm not sure.

It's a more complicated world these days.  Show this graph to anyone who tells you every generation faces the same thing.

I think not.

5 Things to Include In Your "Thanks for the Memories" Email After You Get Fired...

If you're 35 or over and haven't been fired yet in your career, one of two things is likely - you haven't looked for a job that stretches you to the point you might fail, or you take zero chances in your jobs/career and are way too concerned with maintaining the status quo, or what Barry Manilow liked to call "feelings".

Getting fired can actually be a depth-building experience.  In a lot of cases, you're going to want to say goodbye with a "thanks for the memories" letter/email that says goodbye to the people you worked with. Groupon CEO Andrew Mason recently got fired and left the blueprint for the "thanks for the memories" email.  Here's the five elements you want to hit to make yourself look like someone that truly "got it" and is someone the masses would want to work with again - or hire - in the future:

1. Act like you didn't get fired, then admit that you did. Mason did it and it's perfect.  "I'm going to explore other options. I'm exploring those options involuntarily, because I just got canned."

2. Say things weren't going great and you're accountable. 

3. Say that the best way for the people working for and around you to reinvent themselves is for you to get out of the way.  It shows confidence in the team and highlights the fact that you know other people were adding a lot of the value - not just you.

4. Add a pop culture reference to tell people what you got out of the experience. 

5. Give them something you learned that you wish you would have done differently, and encourage them to go for it.  Don't whine on this one - come up with something real but stay classy.  No "If I could share one thing, it would be to watch out for the backstabbers".  Come up with something real that shows you're a self-reflective SOB/DOB.  

See Mason's letter below with highlights referencing my 5 things in the order they appear above.

Next time you get fired, drop some science with this type of letter.  You'll get hired into a future job you didn't deserve as a result of doing it.

The Andrew Mason Goodbye Letter

(This is for Groupon employees, but I'm posting it publicly since it will leak anyway)

People of Groupon,

After four and a half intense and wonderful years as CEO of Groupon, I've decided that I'd like to spend more time with my family. Just kidding - I was fired today. If you're wondering why... you haven't been paying attention. From controversial metrics in our S1 to our material weakness to two quarters of missing our own expectations and a stock price that's hovering around one quarter of our listing price, the events of the last year and a half speak for themselves. As CEO, I am accountable.

You are doing amazing things at Groupon, and you deserve the outside world to give you a second chance. I'm getting in the way of that. A fresh CEO earns you that chance. The board is aligned behind the strategy we've shared over the last few months, and I've never seen you working together more effectively as a global company - it's time to give Groupon a relief valve from the public noise.

For those who are concerned about me, please don't be - I love Groupon, and I'm terribly proud of what we've created. I'm OK with having failed at this part of the journey. If Groupon was Battletoads, it would be like I made it all the way to the Terra Tubes without dying on my first ever play through. I am so lucky to have had the opportunity to take the company this far with all of you. I'll now take some time to decompress (FYI I'm looking for a good fat camp to lose my Groupon 40, if anyone has a suggestion), and then maybe I'll figure out how to channel this experience into something productive.

If there's one piece of wisdom that this simple pilgrim would like to impart upon you: have the courage to start with the customer. My biggest regrets are the moments that I let a lack of data override my intuition on what's best for our customers. This leadership change gives you some breathing room to break bad habits and deliver sustainable customer happiness - don't waste the opportunity!

I will miss you terribly.

Love,

Andrew

THE GREAT REMOTE WORKER DEBATE: The Only Two Things That Matter...

Yesterday, I posted on an internal memo at Yahoo sent to company employees about a new rule rolled out last week by CEO Marissa Mayer, which requires that Yahoo employees who work remotely relocate to company facilities.

Reaction on the web goes one of two ways:

1. You dummies don't understand that if you don't allow me to work from home, I actually work less once you factor in commute time, crappy meeting time, office politics time.  You should let me work from home.

2. Yahoo nailed it.  Too many slackers working from home don't give enough, aren't availalbe to collaborate, etc.  There's no replacement for being together.

Both reactions have truth in them.  Which means there are really only two things that matter when it comes to the debate of remote workers as it relates to the HR practice:

1.  You should be trying to find ways to make your location specific, "in the office" workers more productive.  Do they have protected time where they can really get away from meetings, people, etc to drive value?   We should be finding ways to bring the best elements of remote work to the office.

2.  You should be trying to make your remote workers more available in all ways to be part of teams, to collaborate and set the expectation that's a part of the role.  You should be thinking video in this regard - nothing holds a remote worker more accountable that being available for video calls.  Much harder to be disengaged if that's the case.

Seems like these two angles are what we should be focusing on related to the remote worker debate.  Best of one world transferred to the other.  Cats and Dogs living together.

What did I miss? 

HARASSED: Why You Need to Add These Text Exchanges to Whatever Harassment Training You Do...

Gradually - and I mean gradually - your managers are waking up to the fact that text messages don't deserve the informality that they're granted.

What do I mean?  We've learned that conversations can be taped or confirmed through witnesses. We've learned that email is discoverable and generally toxic. With that learning in mind, managers and employees watch what they say and the world is generally a better place, with less bullying in the workplace and a general awareness of what you say being held against you.

But when it comes to texting, our world still grants sending a text with informality that it's more like a one-on-one conversation rather than a email exchange. That might work for someone's private life, but it's poison for the workplace.  Or any merging of workplace and private life.

Ask Tiger Woods what ill-advised texting can do to a career.

I could tell you to add the Tiger Woods texting stream to your next Harassment Training for managers.  But Tiger Woods is too much of a mega-star to really help them relate.

So I found one your managers can relate to.  A Toledo track and field coach who was having relationships with the student-athletes he "managed".  Check it out from Deadspin:

"It was a matter of rules and consequences, he said. On Jan. 24, Kevin Hadsell, the director of the University of Toledo's men's and women's cross country and women's track program, announced his resignation, a move that was as mysterious as it was abrupt. Hadsell had been at Toledo since 1998, and in the intervening years he had built the Rockets into a regional power, becoming an institution unto himself along the way. The 42-year-old was a five-time Mid-American Conference coach of the year. He did color commentary on Toledo women's basketball games, and he hosted a weekly podcast and radio show. He cut a lively figure on campus, and when Toledo's football coach, Tim Beckman, decamped for Illinois, Hadsell evidently felt he had enough clout around town that he could scoff at the decision from his Twitter account. "You couldn't pay me enough $ to take certain jobs in big conferences," he wrote. "Some schools are dead-end jobs in some sports. Think two moves ahead."

What Hadsell and the university did not say is that the coach was forced to resign after a female runner had accused him of sexual harassment. The runner, whom we'll call Andrea to protect her identity, had also revealed to the school that Hadsell had been in a long-term physical relationship with her teammate and friend.

Deadspin has obtained text messages sent to Andrea over the past five months from Hadsell's phone. They range in tone from the flirty to the frankly sexual, growing obsessive and paranoid as he learns of the university's investigation; until the very end, it seems, he was unaware that it was Andrea who had turned him in.

"I'm too ***ing selfish," Hadsell joked to Andrea on Oct. 22, denying a relationship with the other runner, whom we will refer to as Caitlin. "I'm down for drinks, laughs, sex. Other than that I value my free time." Earlier, he had told Andrea: "Not gonna lie. I would hook up with [Caitlin] (I havmt) but if she wasn't psycho I would." He added, "It may be a good ride. Just sayin."

The guy is obviously troubled and there's good reason he's not employed anymore at Toledo.

But there's a lesson for your managers in here.  Stop being informal with texting to the people you manage.  It's going to be leveraged against you.  Check out the informality in these text exchanges from the manager in question as reported by Deadspin:

Hadsell: "I want to talk."

Hadsell: "And Be real"

Andrea: "Okay we can"

Hadsell: "Dude. Straighgt up...can I trust you? And. Are u really interested in me?"

Andrea: "Yes you can trust me"

No further texts for an hour. Then:

Hadsell: "Are u awake?"

Hadsell: ":("

No further texts until 12:57 a.m.

Hadsell: "I guess not. ***k."

Four days later, while in Wisconsin for a cross-country meet, Andrea told Hadsell she knew he'd been sleeping with Caitlin, who had graduated the previous spring. Hadsell denied everything.

Andrea: "you really don't lead her on at all?"

Hadsell: "Dude. I don't. I don't completely discourage. I'm a guy. Duhh. That's honest."

Andrea: "I knew it"

Andrea: "Hahahahaha"

Hadsell: "Like you know what I mean. You're not ENCOURAGING. But you're not"

Hadsell: "DISCOURAGING"

Informality via text. This example is extreme, but your managers are in the margins with the people who report to them way too much.

Add informal texting to your next harassment training/managerial skills training platform.

SKILLS FOR MANAGERS: Knowing When to Switch It Up...

Short post today.  All in all, I've got a pretty good life.  Great family, interesting work, etc.

My biggest disappointment and challenge that appears from time to time?  Waiting too long to change the game on something that's clearly not working.

When something is not working in any area of your life, you should ask yourself the following questions:

1. If I wait to change this, is there any reasonable probability it's going to get better?

2. If the answer to #1 is no, what the #$# am I waiting on?

The disease of waiting to change or take action is everywhere, and it's impacting the managers you support daily.  Excuses for not taking action if the answer to #1 include the following:

1. We need to give it/them time.

2. I'm afraid of hurting someone's feelings

3. It's too hard to get everyone on the same page.

4. I've got a lot invested in the current solution.

When you really stop and thinking about it, the most dynamic leaders in any organization are the people who can accurately assess if there's any probability of stale results getting better, then take action like a Ninja on five Red Bulls to change it up.

It's on my mind in a big way.  So much so the post today over at our new blog at Kinetix (aptly named Tremendous Upside) is a quote:

"If you're scared, buy a dog"

Kill something that needs to be killed or pivot today. It might just be what it takes to get you interested in your work again.  For some of you, that's the biggest win you'll have this year.

YOUR MONEY QUOTE: On Displaying Zero Individuality at Work (Per Company Request)...

“I am expected to portray a canned personality that has been found to be least offensive to the greatest amount of people.” 

-Fired waitress from Applebee's
(fired after she took a picture of a credit card where a pastor stiffed her on religious grounds) 

That quote pretty much sums up a lot of what I don't work to be - wherever I work and whatever orgs I'm a part of of molding.

Let you be you?  Hell,no. Be who we need you to be.  Conform.  Don't be interesting. Offend no one.  Thrill no one.

What an awful way to feel at work. The entire story on the viral credit card receipt at the Consumerist is pretty good as well, check it out.

h/t to Matt Stollock, Lance Haun, Tim Sackett and Steve Boese via email thread.

 

Is Giving Employees a Yes/No Vote in Firings a Better Way to Go?

Ah yes - let's give your teammates a say in whether you get fired or not.  A vote, if you will!

Check out the video below from the Minute MBA series.  It's featuring a company called Valve, a maker of the video games your kids love to play (Left for Dead, anyone?).  The focus is on the Valve way of firing - everyone on the team gets a vote.

Sounds progressive, right?  I like this in theory, and I think the deeper you get into organizational history of where this has been the case, the more serious employees would take the responsibility.

The bigger issue for me?  It's not show friends, it's show business. I'd be worried that I don't get enough votes to fire someone because they're a nice person.  We hear it all the time in employee surveys - what do you like best about working at ACME?  The people. I love the people I work with.

Unfortunately, liking someone doesn't equal results. I'd be more worried in this system about not getting people fired than the people who actually got fired, because let's face it - if 10 of your 12 teammates voted to kick you to the curb, you had it coming.

It's the other way I'd be worried about.  What about you?

(email subscribers click through for video below)