The Amoral “Boss/Supervisor/Manager”…

We’ve all had bosses do things we didn’t like, appreciate, or respect. And every manager has done things they later regret. The business world is, by necessity, one of real-time decisions and judgment calls that sometimes turn out to be bad choices, in retrospect.

After all, nobody’s perfect. We all make mistakes. And that’s a good thing, since that’s are how we learn lessons, including how to do our jobs better. That goes for every employee, manager, executive, business owner, CEO, everyone.

But sometimes a mistake can become a slippery slope. An exception can all-too-easily become the rule. Simply put, there are lines that managers should not cross, behavior they should not exhibit, and not to be overly dramatic, pathways that lead more or less to the dark side.

In 10 things great managers do. I went back in time to the best characteristics of the best CEOs I’ve worked for and with over the past 30 years. I decided to do the same thing here for the simple reason that I learned as much from the negative experiences as I did from the positive ones.

Keep in mind, this is not meant to be a whine-fest to get employees riled up and ticked off at their bosses. Think of it instead as a standard that employees and managers alike can agree upon and, perhaps, a wakeup call for those who need one.

10 Things a “Boss/Supervisor/Manager” Should Never Do

1.       Order people around like dictators. Contrary to popular belief, managers are not dictators. Every manager has at least one boss. Even CEOs serve the customer, board of directors, and shareholders. Any manager who thinks he can order people around or abuse his authority because he’s the boss is a terrible leader. Employees are not soldiers or children. You can tell them what their job is and even fire them, if you want, but if you order them around, the good ones will up and quit, as they should.

2.               Forget about customers. It never ceases to amaze me how many managers forget that organizations and companies exist for just one reason - to win, maintain, and support customers. Business is about business, and when you make it about you - your issues, your fears, your empire, your thin skin, whatever - you cease to be an effective manager.

3.           Behave like arrogant jerks that are better than others. Just to be clear, I am not saying managers or bosses can’ not be jerks. A lot of people are jerks, including plenty of employees, and almost everybody’s a jerk under certain circumstances. I’m specifically talking about the arrogant “I’m better than the little people” thing. It makes you look like a little brat and completely neuters your authority and credibility.

4.          Let their egos write checks that reality can’t cash. Oftentimes, leaders attain their position because they believe they’re special - a fascinating misconception that’s nevertheless often self-fulfilling. The problem with that is the slippery slope of drinking your own Kool Aid. Either you grow up or, sooner or later, things end up unraveling. I’ve seen it time and again and it isn’t pretty.

5.           Publicly eviscerate employees. Of all the things I’ve experienced over the decades, this is not only the most dehumanizing but also the most demoralizing to employees. I had a couple of CEOs that practiced this on a regular basis and both were universally despised, as a result. Moreover, both self-destructed in the end.

6.              Wall off their feelings. This may sound touchy feely, but it’s far from it. Researchers are fond of classifying executives and leaders as psychopathic, but the mechanism by which that happens is compartmentalizing of emotions. If you’ve ever wondered how people who seem to lack any semblance of humor or humility can behave the way they do, the answer is, if you’re not connected to your emotions, you’re far less human.

7.               Surround themselves with bureaucrats, B’sers, and yes-men. When you encourage the status quo and discourage dissent, you doom the organization to stagnation and eventual decline.

8.              Threaten. Threats don’t work. They’re just as likely to motivate the opposite behavior of what you’re trying to achieve. They diminish your authority and make you appear weak and small. You should communicate what you want and why, then act on the results. That works. Threats don’t. And for God’s sake, never threaten an employee with his job or a vendor with your business. That’s just out of control.

9.     Act out like little children. Everyone goes through the same stages of human development on the road to adulthood and maturity. Unfortunately, some of us get stuck in one stage or another, stunting our growth and rendering us dysfunctional. We look just like ordinary adults, but we actually behave a lot more like children, acting out, throwing tantrums, and generally making life miserable for everyone around us.

10.          Break the law. America is a nation of laws and, civil or criminal, they’re black and white for a reason. For some reason, executives will sometimes risk everything - power, wealth, careers, families, everything - for motives most of us will never understand.  We’re talking accounting, securities, bank, wire, and mail fraud; insider trading; bribery; obstruction of justice; conspiracy; discrimination; harassment; it’s a long, long list.

Doing Things Differently; Meeting Your Obstacles Head On

Whenever I’m discussing a challenge — oh, all right, whenever I’m whining about something — my friend only lasts about 30 seconds before he says, “Okay, I get it. What are you going to do differently?”

Hearing the same thing time after time could be pretty irritating… except he’s right. The only way to overcome a problem is to do something differently.

But here’s an even better approach: Instead of waiting until you’re forced to make a bad situation better, why not turn a decent situation into a great one and tackle your challenges head on?

Let’s call this business — and personal — strategy The Five A(s) of Awesomeness. (Then again maybe not; I might have just gone all Tony Robbins on you.)

All you have to do is pick a few of these to do differently:

Analyze

1.             Switch measurements. Over time we develop ways to measure our performance. Maybe you focus on time to complete, or quality, or end result. Each can be effective, but sticking with one or two could cause you to miss opportunities to improve. Say you focus on meeting standards; what if you switched it up and focused on time to completion? Measuring your performance in different ways forces you to look at what you do regularly from a new perspective.

2.             Shift benchmarks. If you create apps it’s fun to benchmark against, say, the runaway success of Angry Birds. Setting an incredible goal is fine — since if you don’t aim high you won’t reach high — but failing to hit a lofty goal can kill your motivation. Choose a different benchmark; look for companies (or people) with similar assets, backgrounds, etc. and try to beat their results. For a motivation boost, consider, finding the enemy.

Accept

Be who you are. I would like to climb like this guy. Or, ride a motorcycle like that guy. Or, change the world like Steve Jobs. I won’t. And for the most part I’m okay with that because I can always be a better me. I can climb better or ride faster or make a bigger difference in the lives of my family and friends. Think about whom you admire and pick a few of their qualities to emulate, not necessarily their accomplishments. You can’t be them — and they can’t be you.

Let others be who they are. Your boss isn’t going to change. The company you work for isn’t going to change. Your customers, your vendors… they aren’t going to change. Don’t expect them to. Pick one source of frustration and decide what you will do differently, including, possibly, walking away. When you stop focusing on negatives you may start to notice positive qualities you missed. No one is as bad or as good as you make him or her out to be — and that’s okay.

Assist

Help a coworker. Don’t wait to be asked. Pick someone who is struggling and offer to help. But don’t just say, “Is there some way I can help you?” Be specific: Offer to help with a specific task, or to take over a task for a few days, or to work side-by-side. A general offer is easy to brush aside; a specific offer shows not just that you want to help but that you care.

Help a superstar. Counterintuitive? Hardly. Compared to others, the best-performing people don’t need help, so they rarely get it, and as a result they’re often lonely, at least in a professional sense. Ask if you can help with a specific task. Not only will you build a nice interpersonal bridge, you may create a connection that helps improve your own performance.

Help anyone. Few things feel better than helping someone in need. Take a quick look around; people less fortunate than you are everywhere. For example, I did an interview skills seminar for prison inmates (after all, who needs to know how to deal with tough interview questions more than a convicted felon?) It only took an hour of my time and was incredibly rewarding. Most were touchingly grateful that someone — anyone — cared enough to want to help them.

Approach

Go opposite. If you haven’t reached a goal, what you are currently doing isn’t working. Instead of tweaking your approach, take an entirely different tack. If traditional advertising isn’t working, try cold calling. If you aren’t getting the promotions you want, start a small business on the side. Pick one goal you’re struggling to achieve and try a completely different approach. Sometimes adjustments will eventually pay off, but occasionally you just need to blow something up.

Drop one thing. We all have goals — often, too many goals. It’s impossible to do ten things extremely well. Take a look at your goals and pick at least one that you’ll set aside, at least for now. (Don’t feel bad — you weren’t accomplishing any of your goals to your satisfaction anyway, so what can it hurt?) Then put the time you were spending on that goal into your highest priority. You can’t have it all, but you can have a lot — especially when you narrow your focus to one or two key goals.

Change your workday. Get up earlier. Get up later. Take care of emails an hour after you start work. Eat at your desk. Pick one thing you do on a regular basis, preferably something you do for no better reason than that’s the way you always do it, and do it in a different way or at a different time. Familiarity doesn’t always breed contempt. Sometimes familiarity breeds complacency, and complacency is an improvement and progress killer.

Adopt

Pick a habit. Successful people are successful for a reason, and that reason is often due to the habits they create and maintain. Take a close look at the people who are successful in your field: What do they do on a regular basis? Then adopt one of their habits and make it your own. Never reinvent a wheel when a perfect wheel already exists.

Pick someone to mentor. I’m convinced I learn more from teaching than the people I teach. (Hopefully that says more about the process of teaching than about my teaching abilities.) Not only will you help someone else, you’ll build your network and learn a few things about yourself.

Pick a couple and do things differently. (And if you have ideas you’d like to add, feel free to share in the comments.)

When you do, tomorrow will be better — or at the very least more interesting.

The Penn State Scandal and What We Should Learn

Who decides when the CEO or leader must go?  That is a question that Penn State has faced for at least a decade in its decision about how long should Joe Paterno remain as its head football coach. Today, in the wake of a horrific child abuse scandal, the answer is clear: it is now! Joe Paterno and the university’s president were fired late Wednesday.

Paterno followed the letter of the law in disclosing an allegation of child abuse but in failing to follow up on those allegation - as it would seem a man of his principle would - he and his fellow administrators allowed an accused sexual predator to remain free of investigation for nine years.

Mindboggling? No, heart breaking to the Penn State faithful - student, alumni, faculty, staff, administration and most of all to the children who were allegedly preyed upon by Paterno's former coach and rumored heir apparent.

The problem is larger than what Paterno did or did not do. Penn State seemingly acted more in the spirit of self-preservation than in child protection. But there is a pattern. The university, for decades, has put football, or especially Paterno, in a separate category, seemingly exempt from close scrutiny, and to be fair until now Paterno acted in an exemplary manner. He seemed beyond reproach: his players graduated; he donated over $5 million to the school, most of which was used for a new library; and he was a genuine father figure to his players.

But there were cracks in the legacy. In 2004, the university president sought to have Paterno retire. But Joe Paterno paid his supposed boss no heed. And the university backed down and in the process, sublimated its rightful authority to his whims.

The lesson for boards of directors, university trustees and public officials are clear. Never allow one executive to loom larger than the institution he or she represents.

Here are some suggestions:

Set limits on tenure. Make it clear that the time of service is measured in increments of three to five years. The contract may be renewed regularly but it must be done so with a clear ending point. That prevents leaders from staying on indefinitely.

Groom successors. A leader's legacy begins on the first day of service but it is cemented by the people he grooms to succeed him both as successors and as members of future leadership teams. A deep bench negates the feeling that we have only one person in charge.

Insist on accountability. Leaders who remain in charge are those that deliver the goods. They produce returns that enrich the fiscal and social well being of the institution. Included in accountability must be personal behavior. That is, how do they treat others - colleagues, employees, and other stakeholders? As the saying goes managers get things right; leaders do it the right way.

Will there be exceptions to these guidelines? Certainly. An exemplary leader can extend his length of service. This may be especially true if the institution - more than the leader himself -- could benefit from his leadership for an additional period.

A more serious problem occurs when the reputation of a long-serving and well-intentioned executive becomes so entwined with the reputation of the organization they become synonymous. This is exactly what happened at Penn State. Joe Paterno became the public face of the university.

In good times, that may serve the institution well, but when trouble strikes the institution looks weak and vulnerable, not to mention culpable for failing to hold the leader accountable.

So much for my opinion, I welcome yours.

The End of a Business Relationship

The good news is most business relationships can work for years, and many, for a lifetime.  The bad news is that some are doomed and it is best to cut bait early.

There are several obvious reasons to walk away, including illegal behavior, violence (you’d be surprised how many times I’ve heard of coworkers throwing items at each other), or psychopathic behavior.

But the single most important indicator that it’s time to end the business relationship is much more subtle, which is why people ignore it for years.  It is when your core values, and those of another person, cannot coexist.  Before anyone starts packing, let’s make sure you see have a real core values clash, as this situation is surprisingly rare.

The technique to use is called “click down.” To see how it works, let’s go to a setting where the stakes are high and people are smart enough to have tried just about every strategy before deciding to leave the organization.  I’m talking about museums. Unlike many organizations, museums run on core values.  People study art history-a doctorate in the field is a prerequisite to leadership in many museums-because they love art.  They stay in the field for the same reason, and larger museums attract hundreds of volunteers that fill their free time by educating visitors about the museum’s collections.  When personal values of leaders collide with those of others, the result can derail the organization.  People often choose sides, the museum fragments into silos.  The rates of gossip soar, and people use spies and networks to find out what the “other side” is doing.  Volunteers sense the disharmony and many stop showing up.

Within the most difficult of situations, let’s pick one of the most toughest clashes: A nonprofit CFO and an Executive Director (ED) hate each other, and everyone in the museum seems to know about it.  The CFO values a balanced budget while the ED values growth and expansion of the museum’s collections.  Every time the ED brings up expansion, the CFO turns red and shakes his head.  Likewise, every time the CFO brings up “reining in expenses,” the ED tells her why that approach is wrong.  In some museums, this problem has been boiling for years.

Here’s how to use “click down.” Start with the ED, and ask him to identify his value that the CFO violates.  He’ll probably say, “She doesn’t understand the need for growth.”    Deepen the conversation by asking what about that value is so important.  You might ask: “what about growth is so important?”  Many EDs will say, “Because that’s how we become better known as a museum.”  Continue to deepen by asking about that statement-why is becoming better known important?  You might hear: “because our mission is to educate, and we can’t do that if no one knows who we are.”  There’s a good chance we’re now dealing with a core value, rather than something more superficial.  You can verify that “the mission” is a core value by trying to deepen it.  If you ask: “and why is the mission so important?” you’ll probably hear something like, “because it is.”  When asked why a core value is important, people circle back to it because there is nothing deeper.  A core value is the bedrock of a human being-there’s nothing below it.

Now let’s turn to the CFO.  When asked to identify the value that the ED violates, she’ll probably say, “He doesn’t see the need to operate with a balanced budget.”  Click down by asking why a balanced budget is so important, you might hear: “because that’s how we stay open.”  If asked why staying open is important, she might say, “because that’s part of our mission-to educate.”  And, like the ED, when trying to deepen “the mission,” it loops back to the same value.

In this case, the two people were fighting over values that weren’t core values.  A little dose of “click down,” and it turns out they have found a shared commitment that is deeper than the conflict.  The question to ask them now is: “how do we serve our mission of education, while managing responsibly and finding ways to grow?”

If you can find shared core values, you can work together.  In fact, some of the best partnerships have shared core values while clashing on non-core values.

If you go through “click down,” and end up with core values that cancel each other out, then it’s time to pack your bags.  Clashes I’ve seen include:

1.             Efficiency vs. excellence. One person will want to get a lot done at 80% quality, while the other wants to do less to perfection.

2.             Impact vs. quality of life. One person wants to work 20-hour days to make history, while the other wants to leave at 6pm and take the weekends off to spend time with his family.

3.             Professionalism vs. pragmatism. One person wants to set the bar on doing things in a way that adheres to professional standards while the other wants to just do what works.

If you want to sacrifice everything in service of a core value the other person doesn’t share, time to pack your bags.  Most workarounds will not work, and no amount of team-building, strategic planning, or therapy will help.  Better to learn from the clash and find people to work with who share your core values.

Entitlement: The Good; The Bad; and The Bored

People who feel entitled may think performing dull tasks is a waste of their precious time, resulting in a perception that time passes slowly, according to a new University of Michigan study.

Most people complete at least some dull and routine tasks daily. But if they feel entitled, they are more likely to view them as a waste of time, says Ed O'Brien, a graduate student in the Department of Psychology. This results in the perception that time drags while completing them.

The perception of the "waste of time" could affect time-related interpersonal tasks that might be considered dull, such as volunteering, recycling or driving. It could also extend to how much a person is willing to commit his or her time in a relationship (or his/her job), O'Brien says.

Entitlement is the sense that one deserves more than others. It does not have to involve resources, such as possessing materials or being rich.

"It is the feeling that you are owed something without necessarily putting in effort to attain it," O'Brien said.

For example, an entitled student expects that he "deserves" an "A" regardless of whether he studied for the test. An entitled employee expects that she should get extra vacation days regardless of whether she worked overtime or not. The research suggests that these students and employees more generally perceive their time as valuable and so are more likely to perceive time as wasted or dragging while doing tasks that do not benefit themselves.

The research looks at the link between self-focus and time perception. Three separate studies were conducted: the fun/boring word game, the online survey, and the word-flash experiment. All participants were college students, but each study was completed by a different set of individuals.

For Study 1, students saw a giant block of letters and were asked to copy it repeatedly word-for-word. Researchers asked students to rate how fun the task was from 1 (not at all) to 7 (extremely). The average score was 2.8. Even though all students did this task for 10 minutes, entitled students thought it took much longer.

For Study 2, researchers designed "dull" survey questions involving day-to-day things. Students were asked 27 questions such as, "What is your favorite day of the week," "In which campus building do you spend the most time?" and "How many meals do you tend to eat per day?"

Participants in the entitled group thought it took more time to complete the survey than those in the control group: 11 minutes and eight minutes, respectively. The entitled group also said the survey was a greater waste of time than those from the control group.

"Consistent with our theory, dull tasks crawl for entitled people because they view them as a waste of time," O'Brien said.

For Study 3, students stared at a computer screen for 12 minutes, every once in a while there was a flash of light, which were actually subliminal words. In the control group, the words included "water," "something," "another" and "little." The other group had entitled, self-focus words such as "special," "important," "deserve" and "superior."

Next, the students were told to exit the laboratory and walk down the hall where an experimenter was waiting to give them credit for taking the survey. Unknown to the students, the experimenter timed how long it took participants to walk to where he was sitting.

Participants, who saw the flashes of entitled words, rated time as passing more slowly, thought the task was less interesting, and thought it was a greater waste of time. In addition, the entitled group walked faster when exiting the laboratory (12 seconds) than the other group (13 seconds)—presumably because they felt they had wasted their time and were more anxious to get on with their day.

Informally, when researchers asked participants to describe the study after they finished, everyone reported that the task felt dull.

The study, which was co-authored by Phyllis Anastasio of Saint Joseph's University and Brad Bushman of Ohio State University, appears in the October issue of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin: http://psp.sagepub.com/content/37/10.toc.

Your Tongue; The Enemy Within You!

Comedian George Carlin famously spoke about the “seven words you can never say on television,” but the following seven seemingly innocuous words/phrases might be even worse. To say them is almost like dousing your goals, hopes and dreams with sulfuric acid.

Creating a better life is hard work! It takes little effort to maintain the status quo, but if you have a dream of making more money, getting a promotion, starting a business, becoming healthier, or improving your relationships, you’re going to need as much support as you can get. Strike these seven deadly words/phrases from you lexicon today:

1. When. This is a filthy word when it comes to improving your life. It sounds like this . . . “When I lose 10 pounds I’ll start dating again. When I’m a little older I’ll go for that promotion. When I complete my degree I’ll start that side-business.” Most of the time, our “when’s” just don’t happen, or if they do, they take so long that we’ve forgotten what it was we wanted in the first place. “When” is rarely necessary, but just to be sure, ask yourself this: “Would it be illegal, unethical or immoral to start now?” If the answer is no, don’t wait for when.

2. Someday. There’s nothing wrong with having a “someday” list of things you want to do and places you want to go, but when you find that your “today” list is empty, you’d best start moving some of your future goals into the present. Someday is such a deceptive word. It makes you feel good by proclaiming you’ll someday achieve something, but months, years, and even decades can pass and you may find that your someday is still a long way away.

3. Willpower. According to behavior change expert Dr. BJ Fogg of the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab, “Imagine willpower doesn’t exist. That’s step number one to a better future.” The problem with willpower is that most people either think they have it or they don’t. They’ll say, “Well, of course I ordered the double-fudge sundae. What did you expect from someone who doesn’t have any willpower?” Your genes determine the color of your eyes, NOT whether you order dessert.

4. Want/Wish/Hope. Don’t be a wimp! Stop wanting, wishing, and hoping to do something or for something to happen. If you want more control over your fate, you must take more responsibility for your actions and their outcomes. Don’t sit around expecting change to arrive in your mailbox. It takes a decision and it takes action, not wishful thinking.

5. Not good enough. How can a phrase with “good” in it be so bad? These two simple words will keep you from hitting the publish button, making that important phone call, or trying out for the audition. The solution? Flip it around. Instead of “This isn’t good enough…” change it to “It’s not perfect but it’s good enough.” Don’t wait for everything to be perfect. Just put it out there and see what happens. For more insight into this, listen to my interview on RicherLife.com with Peter Sims as we discuss his book, Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge From Small Discoveries.

6. I don’t have the time. The same guy who doesn’t have time to go to the gym with you after work will miraculously be able to free up an entire evening if you present him with free Laker’s basketball tickets. It may feel like you do not have the time, but with some focus and pruning of non-essential commitments (e.g., TV), you can free up 20 minutes to two hours every night to work on those actions that will help you create a better life.

7. It’s not the right time. If not now, when? No, really? If you are waiting for the stars to align, it’s not going to happen. Instead of waiting for the right time, shift your thinking and look for the least worst time to get started.

Think back to an achievement or goal you’ve accomplished. It took vision, dedication, and perseverance. Not excuses. Stop castrating your future with these seven deadly words/phrases and start working toward a richer life.

Becoming the Perfect Product

Breakfast with orange juice; every day of your life, sweet, tangy orange juice; perfection in a glass. It works. It delivers. It does the job.

What’s that got to do with anything like business, management, leadership, or your career? Everything.

You want to be like orange juice. You want your product to be like orange juice. You want your company to be like orange juice. It delivers on a promise, day in, day out, every time. You want to be like that.

Think about it. In a hypercompetitive world where everybody has a voice and every product has a level playing field called the Internet, in a business environment where differentiation is priceless, if you can deliver the way orange juice does, you can make a dent in the world.

Not convinced? Okay. How about this? There’s something called too much of a good thing. You can max out, play out, and overdo pretty much anything. Can you imagine watching Casablanca every day for your entire life? How about listening to Tony Bennet, or eating pizza?

You might love it that much, but you’re the exception. There are very few things that so perfectly do the job that, day in, day out, most people can eat, drink, watch, or listen to it, know it will always deliver on its promise, and never get sick of it. That’s orange juice.

You can say that’s a matter of personal preference, but it’s not. Not good old OJ. It’s so widely accepted as the morning breakfast drink that every hotel in every city in every country serves it with its morning buffet. It’s in just about every refrigerator. It’s perfect.

If you - as a manager, executive, business owner, marketer, leader, or whatever - can deliver the goods the way orange juice does, then you’ll go far in this world. Here are some recent and noteworthy examples:

President Obama. Talk about failing to deliver on a promise. He promised change, that things will be different, that Washington won’t be politics as usual. He promised to bridge both sides of the aisle. He promised us OJ, told us it was OJ, put it in an OJ container, but to me, it tastes like Kool Aid.

Say what you want about Bill Clinton, but he delivered the OJ. Not right away. It took a while for him to get the process right, but he listened to his constituents and ultimately, he delivered the goods. And he’ll always be remembered as a president who ultimately delivered, even if he did have his … issues.

That’s the first important point about OJ. You can have some glitches or make some mistakes along the way - we all do - as long as you deliver the goods, in the end. Nobody’s perfect.

Carol Bartz. She definitely made OJ as long-time CEO of engineering software-maker Autodesk. And she seemed to be making all the right moves out of the gate at Yahoo, but in the end, she couldn’t deliver. Guess she didn’t have the chops for the brave new world dominated by the likes of FaceBook, Apple, and Google.

Which brings us to the second important point. A CEO, a leader, pretty much anyone, can make OJ at one company or in one situation, but not necessarily at another. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Some have managed to pull it off - Lou Gerstner at American Express and IBM, Steve Jobs at Pixar and Apple, Mark Hurd at NCR and HP - but they’re few and far between.

Sony. Back in the day, Sony made fantastically good OJ. Trinitron TVs. The Walkman. The Beta-max. The creation of the Compact Disc player (with Philips). Today, Sony says it makes OJ, but if so, it’s not the good stuff, like fresh squeezed or anything. It’s like reconstituted frozen OJ, the kind anyone can make. It’s sad, really.

That’s the third important point. Not only is it not good enough to have made it in the past, you can’t just say you make it, either. You’ve got to deliver and keep delivering the goods if you want your customers to keep coming back. The same goes for keeping your job, getting hired, or even getting reelected.

Now, don’t make the mistake of thinking this juicy little analogy is simplistic or trite. It’s not. It’s entirely accurate in describing what it takes for a company, a business, a manager, a CEO, a leader, pretty much anybody, to consistently deliver the goods and maintain a strong brand in a competitive market.

If you look back through history, every great company has had its glitches: Coca Cola, IBM, Toyota, Cisco, there are no exceptions because, in time, stuff happens. The same goes for every great leader or executive. Nobody’s perfect.

Still, we’ve all got to strive for something. So we set our sights, lock in our trajectory, and try our best to deliver the goods. If you can do that - make a promise and deliver on it on a consistent basis - then you’re a rare commodity in this world, that’s for sure.

Reasons Your Employees Don’t Care Anymore

Pay only goes so far. Higher salaries are like the bigger house syndrome: Move into a bigger house and initially it feels roomier, but after awhile larger becomes the new normal.

Employees don’t automatically perform at higher levels if wages are higher because commitment, dedication, and motivation are not based on pay. No matter how high the salary, if you treat employees poorly they won’t care — about their jobs or your business.

Here are eight reasons employees don’t care:

·      No freedom. Best practices are definitely important, but not every task deserves a best practice or micro-managed approach. Autonomy breeds engagement and satisfaction. Autonomy also breeds innovation. Even manufacturing and heavily process-oriented positions have room for different approaches or paths. Decide which process battles are worth fighting; otherwise, let employees have some amount of freedom to work they way they work best.

·      No targets. Goals are fun. (I’ve never met anyone who wasn’t at least a little bit competitive.) Targets create a sense of purpose and add meaning to even the most repetitive tasks. Without a goal to shoot for, work is just work.

·      No sense of mission. We all like to feel a part of something bigger. Striving to be worthy of words like “best” or “largest” or “fastest” or “highest quality” provides a sense of purpose. Let employees know what you want the business to achieve; how can they care about your dreams if they don’t know your dreams?

·      No clear expectations. While every job should include decision-making latitude, every job also has basic expectations regarding the way certain situations should be handled. Criticize an employee for providing a refund today even though last week refunds were standard procedure and you’ve lost the employee.  (How can I do a good job when I don’t know what doing a good job means?) When standards change, always communicate those changes first — then stick with them. And when you don’t, explain why this particular situation is different.

·      No input. Everyone wants to be smart. How do I show I’m smart? By offering suggestions and ideas. (Otherwise no matter how hard I work I just feel like a robot.) Deny me the opportunity to make suggestions, or shoot my suggestions down without consideration, and I’m just a robot — and robots don’t care. Make it easy for employees to present ideas and when an idea doesn’t have merit take the time to explain why. You can’t implement every idea, but you can make employees feel good every time they make a suggestion.

·      No connection. The company provides the paycheck, but employees work for people. A kind word, a short discussion about family, a brief check-in to see if they need anything… person-to-person moments are much more important than meetings or formal evaluations. Employees want to be seen as people, not numbers. Numbers don’t care. People care — especially when you care about them first.

·      No consistency. Most employees can deal with a boss who is demanding and quick to criticize… as long as she treats every employee the same way. (Think of it as the Vince Lombardi effect.) While it’s okay — in fact necessary — to treat employees differently, all employees must be treated fairly. Similar achievements should result in similar praise and rewards. Similar offenses should result in similar disciplinary actions. The key to maintaining consistency is to communicate; the more employees understand why a decision was made, the less likely they are to assume favoritism or unfair treatment.

·      No future. Every job should have the potential to lead to something better, either within or outside the company. I worked my way through college, during the evenings, at an engineering/manufacturing company as a draftsman. I had no future with the  company because everyone understood I would only stay until I graduated. One day my boss said, “Hey, I think it is time you begin to work in the engineering design group.” I looked at him oddly; why show me instead of someone else? In response he said, “Someday, somewhere, you’ll have the opportunity to expand your skill set. Might as well start learning now.” Take the time to develop employees for jobs they hope to fill — even if those positions are outside your company. They will care about your business because they know you care about them.

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish. Rest in Peace Steve Jobs (and Thank You!)

It should not have surprised me that I received the word that Steve Jobs passed away on my iPhone, but it did.  This is a man that has been called the “Edison” of our time.  And, indeed he was.

The death of Steve Jobs, 56, Wednesday, October 5, 2011, marked the end of a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer. Despite his highly publicized struggle, Jobs never failed to inspire and enrich those around him.

In 2005, Steve Jobs' commencement speech inspired a crowd of young Stanford University graduates. The visionary Apple co-founder recounted crucial moments of his life and legacy, while imparting wisdom to the next generation. In revisiting the speech on the night of his death, Jobs' own words shed light on a legend.  It is worth your time to sit back and read (perhaps even learn).

This is the prepared text of the Commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, on June 12, 2005.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal, just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that college graduates should adopt me, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, and karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents’ garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT; another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited; so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice, and, most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. A fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park created it, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and Polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

What an Employee Needs Most

What is the difference between what an average employer provides and what a great employer provides? The answer is not higher pay, better benefits, more extensive training, or greater opportunities.

The answer is dignity.

At well over 35%, our city school system in Louisville, Ky. has the highest percentage of English as Second Language (ESL) students in the state. Initially immigrants sought jobs in agriculture, mainly at local tobacco farms and in the construction trades. Over time others were drawn to the area by the presence of family or friends, or simply by people who share a common language and culture.

I had befriended two Hispanic men who did a project for me. They were applying for a position at a manufacturing facility and asked if I would review their employment documents. (They had been burned before by unfair employment agreements they didn’t understand.) Nothing was wrong with the forms but everything was wrong with the way they were treated. The HR manager and supervisor made jokes at their expense and were dismissive of their questions.

For example, in halting English one asked where they would clean up before their lunch breaks. The supervisor said, “You only get 20 minutes for lunch so there really isn’t time. But don’t worry about it. You boys will still be cleaner than what you’re used to where you come from.”

As I drove away I thought, “I would never treat anyone that way.”

Then, with a sinking feeling, I realized I have treated employees and peers that way. I’ve raised my voice. I’ve rolled my eyes. I’ve exchanged smirks and knowing glances. I’ve responded to suggestions or comments with sarcasm not just because an idea lacked merit but also because I wanted to show how smart and insightful and oh so terribly witty I was by comparison.

I’m guessing you have, too.

Employees aren’t equal. Some are less smart. Some work less hard. Some make more mistakes. Some simply can’t cut it and deserve to be let go. Regardless, each deserves to be treated with respect. Sarcasm, eye rolling, and biting comments shift the focus away from performance and onto the person instead — and dignity is the casualty.

If you talk to me about a mistake I made I may be embarrassed, but I will quickly forget, especially if I learn from that mistake. If you make me feel stupid, especially in front of others, I will never forget. (And I’ll probably never learn from my mistake because I will only focus on how you treated me.)

Dignity is a lot like trust: Once lost, it is almost impossible to recover.

And do not assume pay or benefits or opportunities make employees feel valued. Sure, those have an impact — but treat employees with a lack of respect and no pay can overcome the damage to feelings of self-worth.

Later I asked my friends whether this experience was unusual. They looked down and didn’t say anything for a few moments. Finally one looked up and said, “Here they let us have jobs… but here they do not let us have dignity.”

The most important thing you provide employees is not a job — it’s dignity.

It is also the easiest.