800-CEO-READ Blog: Human Resources/Organizational Development

Got a meeting this morning?

Quick Meeting Openers for Busy Managers: More than 50 Icebreakers, Energizers, and Other Creative Activities That Get Results by Brian Cole Miller is an easy book to consult when you want to kick off a group meeting in a fun way.

Here are a few creative activities to get the group started:

Quotes

This is...
> A meeting starter in which participants share their favorite quotes with the group.

Use it to...
> Help the group warm up as well as get to know each other better.

Best group size...
> Up to about 20.

Materials you'll need...
> No materials are necessary for this activity.

Here's how...
1. Before the meeting, tell participants to bring their favorite quote (either written down or memorized).
2. In the meeting, have participants share their quote and then explain why it is important to them.

For example...
> "'To thine own self be true' is my favorite quote. When I was in my early 20s I realized that I was trying to be what others expected or wanted of me. I wasn't happy. When I came to terms with who I am, and then lived true to that, I found great joy as well as inner peace."

Tips for success...
> You go first to demonstrate how much detail you want them to go into. It doesn't have to be an actual quote, it could be a "saying" or "words to live by."

Try these variations...
> Make this more difficult by not giving participants advance warning. Allow them to paraphrase their favorite quote if they can't remember it word for word.
> Rather than a quote, have participants share their favorite saying or lesson learned from their parents while growing up.
> Divide larger groups up into smaller teams of 8 to 20 members to use this activity.

Map It

This is...
> An activity in which participants form a human map based on where they live.

Use it to...
> Help groups visualize their proximity to each other outside of work.

Best group size...
> Unlimited.

Materials you'll need...
> No materials are necessary for this activity.

Here's how...
1. Gather the group in a larger, open space.
2. Have participants create a map by standing relative to one another based on where their homes are.

Tips for success...
> Place something in the middle of the space to represent where they are now. All points should be relative to that point.
> Beyond that, don't help or guide anyone; let the group figure it all out. Don't be surprised if someone else steps up and starts to lead, though.

Try these variations...
> Have participants map where they were born, where they last went on vacation, where they plan to retire, or where their favorite restaurant is.
> Have participants map where their work locations are. Afterward, discuss what impact geographic diversity has on the work they are about to do, if any.

Find more lively activities in Quick Meeting Openers for Busy Managers: More than 50 Icebreakers, Energizers, and Other Creative Activities That Get Result.

Article from Jim Champy, author of Outsmart!

Thanks to Jim Champy, author of Outsmart!: How to Do What Your Competitors Can't. The article below describes some shared characteristics of great companies.

WHERE ARE THE GREAT COMPANIES?
By Jim Champy

For years I have been searching for great companies. What I have found is that there are none. Greatness is an aspiration - a very honorable one. But no company is perfect, even if it performs well year after year.

Greatness, like, many objectives, is in the eye of the beholder. One simple test for greatness is how a company is experienced by its constituents - its customers, its associates, its owners, and business partners. In my most recent research, I looked at over a thousand high-growth companies and found many companies that are very good. They treat all of their constituents well and, in their own unique ways, aspire to greatness.

My search was driven by a desire to find companies that have new business models, delivering new products and services to customers and executing in new ways. I have written about my discoveries in OUTSMART!, my latest book. Although I could find no single formula for what creates a good - or great - company, I did find some shared characteristics.

Ambition: The leadership team of every good company has a great ambition for the company - usually one that addresses an unmet customer need. The ambition is not one of personal greed; it's about building a company that delivers on its promise and does it with a unique quality. My experience over the years is that it takes a great ambition to create even a good company. I was inspired in my research by a company called Minute Clinic, whose ambition is to change how healthcare is delivered, for the benefit of everyone involved in the healthcare system.

Customer: Every good company begins by meeting a customer need. That need is often deeply understood by the company's founder because they, themselves, experienced the need - and saw how that need was not being well met. Sometimes the founder hands off the leadership of the company to someone else who operationalizes the idea. But that wasn't the case in the example of Sonicbids, a company that saw the unmet needs of thousands of independent musicians and performers and whose founder has led the company to a unique position in the music business. This music business for independent performers is a 13 billion dollar a year market, that no one saw or had the appetite to organize until Sonic bids came along.

Focus: Good companies stay focused on what they know and can do well. When companies search for new ideas, they often drift into unknown territory and get in trouble. Good companies just keep growing and expanding into familiar territory. Shutterfly is a wonderful example of a company that's growing, but it grows by expanding within the social expressions business, helping communities of people share photographs in hundreds of ways. Niches can be very large markets.

Execution: Satisfying a customer requires relentless attention to execution. Building a company's capability to deliver makes the difference between turning a great idea into a business or failure. But execution is not just about delivering a product. It's also about service. Over the years, I have observed that technology companies are particularly bad at recognizing and responding to the service needs of their customers. Counter intuitively, high-tech requires a lot of high-touch. Partsearch is a company that knows what it's doing with customer service, helping customers find what they need in an ocean of millions of parts and accessories for consumer electronic products. Partsearch has tamed chaos in its industry.

Inspiration: Smart companies engage all of their associates in building the business, from idea creation though delivery. Ideas don't just come tops-down; they also come bottoms-up and from every other direction. Everyone in the company feels that they own a piece of the action and are accountable for how the company performs. The inspiration for a company starts at the top, but good leadership drives that inspiration deep into the company by engaging people broadly in decision-making. People are more than mechanical parts of the enterprise, and the more they are allowed to see customers, the better their business sensibilities.

These are some of the behaviors that I have found in the good companies I have studied. My ultimate test of the quality of a company is whether I would like to work there. The good news: I see many high growth companies where I would work. They are smart companies, in multiple industries, that are operating quite brilliantly.

Author Bio
Jim Champy is one of the leading thinkers in business. His first book, Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution, helped transform the corporate world. For more information, please visit www.jimchampy.com.

Check out Outsmart!: How to Do What Your Competitors Can't!

Divide or Conquer video

Diana McLain Smith has a nice new video overview of her book, Divide or Conquer. The book, which we've written about in other posts, talks about how personality differences, conflicting interests, and other working relationship scenarios, can drastically affect the success or failure of an organization. As she states, in successful relationships, the focus on those relationships is as strong as the focus on the company mission.

Much more insight into her perspective and approach can be seen in the video below:

5 ways to deal with negativity and foster positivity at work

Thanks to Jon Gordon, author of The No Complaining Rule and The Energy Bus, for contributing this article on positivity.

Positive Ways to Deal with Negativity

With the mortgage meltdown, floods in the Midwest, $4 a gallon for gas, food prices, the economy, famine, war in Iraq, etc., many would agree that there is a lot of negativity in the world and certainly a lot to complain about. And yet, while traveling the country this past month, ironically for the No Complaining Rule Tour, I met a number of people who inspired me with the positive ways they were dealing with the negativity in their life. In spite of their circumstances they chose to view their situation with a positive perspective... which so often makes all the difference. Since we all could benefit from their example, here are 5 positive ways to deal with negativity.

1. Find the Gift - Richard Bach said every problem has a gift for you in its hands. One woman came up to me and said that because of the cost of gas her family is driving less and as a result they are spending more time at home and having dinner together more often. She said this "negative" situation has been very "positive" for her family. Another person said he is taking the bus to work instead of driving and as a result he has met a lot of interesting people.
2. Look at the Bright Side - One gentlemen joked that because of the cost of gas he now has a great excuse to not drive and see his negative relatives.
3. Zoom Focus - It doesn't matter what the pundits say on television. It doesn't matter what Joe and Sally in your office are doing. It doesn't matter who is playing office politics. All that matters is what you do every day to grow yourself and your business. Focus on being positive and taking positive action every day. Be like the real estate agent who told me that he doesn't focus on what the news and newspapers say. He focuses on what he can do every day to be successful. He focuses on marketing his business, taking care of his clients, and building loyal relationships. What things do you need to Zoom Focus on?
4. Focus on the Opportunity Not the Challenge - Behind every innovation and solution is a story about someone who said there has to be a better way. I bet Henry Ford was walking behind a horse when he had the idea for his automobile. History shows us that a lot of people and a lot of companies make a lot of money during recessions. The key is to find the opportunity. Where is the market heading? What do people want and need? What will they want in the future? Now is a great time to build a positive team with great talent. Now is the time to gain market share while so many give up. Now is a great time to determine who is on your bus and who is off your bus. Now is the time to be indispensable to your company and demonstrate how valuable you are.
5. Be a Positive Influence on Others - I received an email from Ruthanne in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She wrote:

   "As you are probably aware, we were recently hit with a 500 year flood. My neighborhood was impacted the worst and most of our homes, mine included, are a total loss. People tell me I have been the most positive person they know who was directly impacted by the flood. I don't have a lot of time today (first day back at work in 2 wks) to tell you all the positive things that have been going on in our city and in my life, but I will be writing an article when this is all over with. I did want to say though that I have not complained throughout all the devastating catastrophe because of the knowledge I learned both from your seminar, books and newsletters."

   Ruthanne could have chosen to wallow in self pity and negativity but instead she chose to deal with her negative situation by being a positive influence on others. Think about how many people she is positively impacting in her community. Now think about the positive influence you can have on people at work, in your community and at home.

Every day simply ask yourself "How can I be a positive influence where I am, right now?"

Stay Positive!

-Jon

Author Bio
Jon Gordon is a speaker, consultant, and author of the international bestseller The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Lift, Work, and Team with Positive Energy, which has inspired readers the world over. He and his books have been featured on CNN and on NBC's Today show, and in Forbes, Fast Company, O: The Oprah Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. Clients such as the Jacksonville Jaguars. the PGA Tour, Northwestern Mutual, JPMorgan Chase, and Publix Supermarkets also call all Jon to get their team "on the bus" and moving in the right direction. Jon also impacts thousands of teachers and students each year through his work with schools, universities, and nonprofit organizations. He is a graduate of Cornell University and holds a master's degree in teaching from Emory University. He lives in northeast Florida with his wife and two high-energy children.

For more information about Jon, please visit www.JonGordon.com or www.NoComplainingRule.com.

The No Complaining Rule

When I first saw the title "The No Complaining Rule" I had flashbacks to family road trips to "up north" Wisconsin, full of truly Ollie Hopnoodle-esque moments. But the title refers to a new business book about positivity: The No Complaining Rule: Positive Ways to Deal with Negativity at Work by Jon Gordon, who also wrote The Energy Bus.

The No Complaining Rule is constructed like a parable, with anecdotes that build to a point at which the fictional workplace develops "an actionable plan to win the battle against individual and organizational negativity."

The characters sprinkle in insights and hard facts to support their case for a no complaining rule. For instance, the Cost of Negativity:

• Negativity costs the U.S. economy between $250 to $300 billion every year in lost productivity, according to the Gallup Organization. And this number is conservative since it doesn't take into account the ripple effect of complaining and negativity.
• Ninety percent of doctor visits are stress related, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the #1 cause of office stress is coworkers and their complaining, according to Truejobs.com.
• A study found that negative employees can scare off every customer they speak with--for good (How Full Is Your Bucket? by Tom Rath)
• Too many negative interactions compared to positive reactions at work can decrease the productivity of a team, according to Barbara Fredrickson's research at the University of Michigan.
• Negativity affects the morale, performance, and productivity of our teams.
• One negative person can create a miserable office environment for everyone else.
• Negative emotions are associated with the following:
  • Decreased life span and longevity
  • Increased risk of heart attack
  • Increased risk of stroke
  • Greater stress
  • Less energy
  • More pain
  • Fewer friends
  • Less success

Check it out. You might find the right approach to dealing with negativity in your work life.

Cubicle Warfare - office fun for the summer

No matter how fun or creative your job is, there's always the office space issue to deal with. Cubicles, frustrating fax machines, a copier that seems to run out of toner only for you, fluorescent lights and the scent of old coffee grounds. One of the best ways to cope with these conditions is humor--and sometimes pranks. My dad used to send his brother letters, to his office, in envelopes addressed to Our Preferred Preparation H Customer, complete with logo and official design. From time to time at 800-CEO-READ HQ, people have returned from vacation to find their belongings wrapped* in bubble wrap or aluminum foil, or suspended from the ceiling. Recently, Jon returned to find his entire desk area housed in a cardboard shanty**.

There's a new book out called Cubicle Warfare: 101 Office Traps and Pranks by John Austin. Just a few pranks suggested:

"Pickled Chair" - adding a food smell to someone's office chair
"Walkie-Talkie God" - planting a walkie talkie in the ceiling tiles above someone's desk, then transmitting music, the news, or the gospel from a secure location
"Industrial Velcro" - velcro everything to the desk
"Elevator Fun" - post warnings like "Warning- Cables Are Rusting, Please Do Not Jump"
"Paper Hole Door" - place chads from the 3-hole punch along the top of a door
"Decaf Espresso" - not funny

Now, I don't condone carrying out any of the pranks suggested in this "Tactical Manual," but you will certainly enjoy a chuckle or two reading it.

* Meg's desk

** Jon's shanty

Just an interesting tidbit: Jon worked in the shanty for an entire week.

An essay from John Hammergren on health care reform

Thanks to John Hammergren, author of Skin in the Game: How Putting Yourself First Today Will Revolutionize Health Care Tomorrow, for offering us this article on his views about the role of business in health care reform. Hammergren is a leader at McKesson Corporation, a 175-year-old heath care company. He writes passionately about the need for corporations to consider and take seriously their role in the health care issues this country is facing.

In This Political Season, Health Care Reform is a Business Issue

It would be easy, in this long run of important presidential primaries, to be convinced that the problems we have with our health care system can only be resolved through government action and the political process. After all, presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John McCain have each made health care reform a central issue of their campaigns. Political races are all about emphasizing stark differences between positions. But I am encouraged by how much today's political leaders recognize that our health care crisis -- despite that word "care" -- is fundamentally a business problem.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of those politicians who understands the urgency for reform. The health care company I lead, McKesson Corporation, turned 175 years old this year. To help us celebrate that proud milestone, Governor Schwarzenegger spoke passionately and convincingly about the opportunities we have before us to bring the health care industry to another level of excellence.

I believe he's right. Historically, every twenty years or so, we have a debate in this country about health care reform. So what's different now? We've enjoyed incredible advances in medical practice and technology over the last few decades. That's one reason why overall costs have risen but it's also why American health care, despite the criticism currently in vogue, is the envy of the world. On the other hand, with the best of intentions, the political solutions traditionally put forward to make health care cheaper and more accessible -- like artificially capping costs, regulating the services providers offer and restricting consumer choice -- have had the opposite effect. Nobody who runs a business is surprised about that. What computer maker or car dealer would worry about price, access or quality if there was no competition for the customer and no reward for distinctive service?

Business leaders across the country are keenly aware of these issues. I am a member of the Coalition to Advance Healthcare Reform, a group of more than 50 companies advocating solutions to the health care crisis. In regular conversations with top executives, I hear the same concerns frequently. First, because health care costs are soaring, our employer-based health insurance system is hurting American businesses and the economy. Every product or service an American company offers is more expensive than it should be because employee health care costs are added to the mix. In a global economy, this is making it harder to compete with companies abroad. Second, business leaders, with their background in competitive markets and customer service, look at our health care system and think, "What other industry could operate like this and survive?"

In most industries, top performing businesses excel by being the low cost producer, putting out the best product, and meeting or beating customer expectations. The market works because consumers are able to choose the services that meet their needs best. In the health care industry, costs are distorted by government interference in the market and quality differences are disguised by a lack of consumer information and choice. Moreover, while we can argue that "customer" is another word for patient, would the customer in any other market make critical decisions without concern for cost or quality and put up with the inconveniences, inefficiencies and high error rates of health care?

The three remaining presidential candidates understand that effective health care reform means preserving our enviable ability to innovate while making the health care industry more market-oriented and customer friendly. The stump speech talking points about access and cost containment don't always highlight this. But if you view the details of their proposals, a different picture emerges. Each candidate's agenda emphasizes business fundamentals like quality, transparency, and paying for outcomes. They also understand that the current health care information technology boom is about to revolutionize the way care is delivered, reducing medical errors and administrative waste while making efficiency, informed choice, lifelong care and customer-orientation the new paradigm.

What's more, all three candidates see the same critical areas that need our most urgent attention. Chronic diseases account for most of our health care expenditures and require coordinated rather than episodic care. We need to incentivize and organize providers to manage long-term illnesses better. The fear of medical malpractice suits are driving up costs by encouraging unnecessary treatment. We need sensible reform to reduce the preponderance of defensive medicine. Quality of care and outcomes need to be the new measuring sticks by which we assess, select and pay providers for their health care services. We need greater transparency to give primary care physicians and health care consumers the ability to choose the best doctors, hospitals, insurance providers and technicians, while also creating industry-wide standards for the latest in best practice.

No matter which candidate prevails in November, the popular concerns we have about health care right now are going to evolve rapidly once the next administration begins. As a business leader, I support universal access through tax incentives and individual choice (not a de facto expansion of Medicare) because I believe that having everyone in the insurance pool is fundamental to reducing costs and creating a competitive insurance market. But as Governor Schwarzenegger learned when the California Senate Health Care Panel rejected a bill mandating health care for all state residents, sweeping reform is even more difficult when economic times are tough.

The will for reform is real and the political process is critical in building and maintaining the health care industry we deserve. But as the candidates for president realize, the kinds of forces that make American business so competitive can make health care work better, too. Higher quality, lower costs, greater transparency, and better customer service are not contradictory goals, they're outcomes that go together. We don't need to control the health care market through mandates and cost containment legislation, we need to unleash it by giving people the ability to make better informed choices. After all, health care is the one product all consumers need, guaranteed.

Author
John Hammergren is CEO of McKesson Corporation, the Fortune 18 health care services leader. McKesson serves customers at every point of health care and is helping transform the industry into a modern, efficient, and quality-driven system. McKesson has seen industry-leading performance under Hammergren's leadership. During his tenure, the company has more than doubled its revenues and experienced a cultural and business renewal. Hammergren is an HP board member and the recipient of numerous awards for leadership. He is the author of Skin in the Game: How Putting Yourself First Today Will Revolutionize Health Care Tomorrow.

New Excerpt - from Pricing with Confidence

There's a new excerpt up on the Excerpts blog. It's the summary of the book Pricing with Confidence: 10 Ways to Stop Leaving Money on the Table by Reed Holden and Mark Burton.

Holden and Burton show you how you can get everyone in your firm to feel 100% confident in your pricing--no matter what customers are saying or how fierce the competition. By following the 10 simple rules outlined in Pricing with Confidence, you will be able to hold steady or even raise prices while your customers experience increased value for every dollar they spend. The result? Increased revenues and profits.

Pricing with Confidence is a roadmap for senior leadership in sales, marketing, finance and pricing to work together to outperform competition. Pricing with Confidence is organized into ten simple and practical rules to help senior leaders tackle rampant price discounting, negotiate with poker-player like customers, and protect the value a company works so hard to create.

Read about the authors' ten rules here: http://800ceoread.com/excerpts/archives/007768.html

Excerpt from Leadership Brand - 2 of 2

The following is the second of two excerpts from the book Leadership Brand: Developing Customer-Focused Leaders to Drive Performance and Build Lasting Value by Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood.

Leadership Brand details the authors' six-step process to leadership brand--"a shared identity among your organization's leaders that differentiates what they can do from what your rivals' leaders can do." This second excerpt focuses on the process of training.

You can read the first excerpt here.

* * * * * * * * * *

Process. How to make sure the training experience delivers what you intend. A number of process choices are required to make sure that the training experience furthers a leadership brand.

• Faculty. Faculty should embody the brand they are communicating. One executive dictated that his direct reports all engage others in their organization and share decision making with them -- even though that was just one of many arbitrary demands that he made in the absence of any shared decision making on his part. His hypocrisy in demanding that others be participative led to cynicism. Those who address leaders in training sessions should embody and live the message they are communicating. With this generic caveat, four categories of faculty can be enlisted to help make the most of training: inside experts, outside experts, line managers, and external stakeholders (customers or investors, or both).
• Inside experts. Training departments often have people who prepare and deliver excellent training modules. These individuals need to be credible both for how they present and for what they have done earlier in their careers. It is especially useful to present internal instructors who have had experience in line management positions where they were successful, and who can focus on technical areas in which they have deep expertise. They may also be certified in the program at hand (such as Six Sigma black belts) and thus able to help others become certified. Often, as internal experts move into an instructional mode, they receive coaching in presentation skills to increase their impact on an audience. They know the company and culture and they can talk with confidence and experience about how to turn ideas into action in the trainees' own environment.
• Outside experts. External instructors bring new ideas and knowledge. They transmit practices that have worked in other settings . However, to make knowledge productive, they should also know enough about the immediate business to see how their knowledge will help further the firm leadership brand. They should adapt their ideas to the specific requirements of the organization. They can be paired with internal managers and instructors so that their ideas will have maximum impact.
• Line Managers. In recent years, line managers have been increasingly used to design and deliver training. One colleague responsible for developing leadership told us that the best thing he could do was to have the senior leaders of the company train other leaders, if only because that forced those doing the training to model the behavior they advocate and teach. EDA found that 75 percent of leading companies used senior executives as presenters for at least part of the training. PepsiCo has been one of the leaders in this area. Its senior leaders do many things to make the training relevant to PepsiCo's situation, including individual coaching of future leaders. This mentoring role goes beyond the confines of the classroom to being accessible to learning leaders once they return to their day-to-day work. They focus their instruction on how to make things happen -- for real, at PepsiCo -- through leadership action. They have informal conversations over meals or in the evening where they communicate PepsiCo values through stories. They share their own personal journey of leadership at the company and encourage learning leaders to craft their own. They work to be consistent in their day-to-day leadership with what they are teaching future leaders to do. All these ideas help participants in a training experience learn the leadership brand by observing it firsthand. Depending too much on line managers has the limitations of not sourcing ideas from outside the company and becoming insular, training future leaders on what present leaders have done without focusing on what could be, and not having quite as innovative a pedagogy or teaching style (line managers are expected to be gifted teachers).
• Customers or investors. For an organization to shift leader training to building leadership brand, it is critical to involve outside stakeholders in the design, delivery, or presentation of the training experience. Customers and investors may participate in each of these steps through their presence (bringing them into the room in person or on video) or their essence (making sure that their concerns are being addressed). Customers can be present at instructional design meetings and voice opinions about what should be taught, or the design team can research customer expectations and make sure that they are infused throughout the design. Customers and investors can help deliver a program as expert faculty, participants in a live case study focused on their own needs, or members of a panel sharing their encounters with the company. Customers can also join a program as participants, working to make sure that their expectations (which are at the heart of firm brand) are understood and translated into action through leadership investments while they also derive the personal benefits of the program itself. Including customers and/or investors in training experiences increases the likelihood that participants will be more than tourists, will not only understand what their leadership brand needs to be but find ways to actually do it.

When the four faculty groups form an integrated team, the training will have innovative content (led by outside experts), adapted to the organization (led by internal experts), with relevance to the organization's success (because of customer or investor participation, or both), and with accountability for its application (because of line manager participation).

Reprinted by permission of Harvard Business Press. Excerpted from Leadership Brand: Developing Customer-Focused Leaders to Drive Performance and Build Lasting Value. Copyright 2007 Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood.

Excerpt from Leadership Brand - 1 of 2

The following is an excerpt from the book Leadership Brand: Developing Customer-Focused Leaders to Drive Performance and Build Lasting Value by Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood.

Leadership Brand was published last September and has been on our best seller list several times. The book is the authors' six-step process to leadership brand--"a shared identity among your organization's leaders that differentiates what they can do from what your rivals' leaders can do." This first of two excerpts deals with training design and methods, and the second, to come, focuses on the process of training.

* * * * * * * * * * *


Training Design and Methods: Enormous research has been done on how to train with impact. Here are some specific tips that will increase the impact of your investment in building leadership brand, as opposed to developing leaders:

• Offer an integrated model for the experience. We continue to see many training events as parades of stars, with each day or module taught by a thoughtful presenter (either outside faculty, line manager, or customer), then another module from another face, and then another. With little integration, each training module is an isolated event. Branded training requires an integrated message (what our leaders need to know and do to demonstrate a leadership brand consistent with a firm brand) that has distinct modules woven around the brand theme.
• Use a host of training pedagogies. Since adults learn differently from another, different methodologies can and should be used. A mix of lecture, small group discussion, written case studies, live case studies, action learning projects, team presentation, video snippets, technology-based learning, simulations, assessment tools, and so forth can be woven into the training experience to ensure that regardless of each participant's learning style, all will find some methods that work well. Bear in mind that with adult learners, the faculty should be talking about 60 or 70 percent of the time. If faculty allow their participation to fall below 50 percent of the talking time, participants are in a problem-solving session and wonder what the faculty add; if faculty do 85 percent or more of the talking, participants are more likely to be listening than internalizing what is taught.
• Design modules to follow the concept-illustration-action (C-I-A) rational. During a training experience, a host of modules may be woven around the integrated C-I-A theme. Each module should have a clear set of concepts. Concepts represent the research-based theory and principles that frame an issue, or just the commonsense ideas that clearly apply without rich theory and research. These concepts should align specifically with the firm's brand and how it relates to leadership brand. But with content, there must also be illustration, or examples of what others have done with the principles taught. The illustrations may be written case studies of successful (or unsuccessful) firms, live case studies (as when customers attend and share problems), or video cases. Whatever the choice, participants learn by seeing how ideas were actually implemented. Then application follows. Application generally reinforces ideas with personal impact as participants adapt the concepts and illustrations to their personal situation. With the use of C-I-A logic in each module, a personal understanding of the leadership brand begins to emerge that participants can understand, observe, and practice.
• Build recursive lessons (self-reflective and self-learning) into the training. The half-life of knowledge is getting increasingly shorter, so all concepts taught in training need to be analyzed and updated consistently. For example, when IBM CEO Lou Gerstner wanted to increase organization capabilities of speed and collaboration, he sponsored a training experience called Accelerating Change Together (ACT). The ACT process was designed to achieve a fast and collaborative approach to leading the business, with a focus on team-based action learning projects. Each team identified eight-, ten-, and twelve-week problems to solve, and then worked collaboratively to identify the right people in the world to solve each problem (and then give them eight, ten, or twelve weeks to solve it). As the teams went through this training experience, they continually unlearned and learned how to improve their projects. Getting an individual leader to understand and adapt a leadership brand may require that the leader be knowledgeable about what the brand requires and reflective about how well he currently lives the brand. Leadership brand is less likely to take hold when forced on individual leaders and more likely to take root when individual leaders experience it through both training and work experiences.

Copyright (c) 2006 Reprinted by permission of Harvard Business Press. Excerpted from Leadership Brand: Developing Customer-Focused Leaders to Drive Performance and Build Lasting Value. Copyright 2007 Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood.

Jack Covert Selects - Two books! - One Foot Out the Door - and - Giving Notice

One Foot Out the Door: How to Combat the Psychological Recession That's Alienating Employees and Hurting American Business by Judith M. Bardick, Ph.D., AMACOM, 240 pages, $24.95 Hardcover, October 2007, ISBN 9780814480588

Giving Notice: Why the Best and the Brightest Leave the Workplace and How You Can Help Them Stay by Freada Kapor Klein, Jossey-Bass, 240 pages, $27.95 Hardcover, October 2007, ISBN 9780787998097

Two books out this fall address a serious issue facing employers: a nation of disengaged workers. In June I wrote about Off-Ramps and On-Ramps, a book that challenged the current career model and its shortcomings for women--and, consequently, a major brain drain in this country's businesses. These two books, One Foot Out the Door and Giving Notice, delve deeper into the reasons all types of employees are feeling dissatisfied in their work, and draw attention to a growing problem that has the potential to shape new generations entering the workforce.

In One Foot Out the Door, Judith M. Bardwick, a former professor of psychology and now a highly-regarded management consultant, begins by giving an overview of the economic ups and downs of the past half-century. She points to the economic recessions of the late '70s and early '80s as the time when our economy's unwritten "social contract"--employees work hard and employers take care of them--fell apart. As cutbacks were made, work was outsourced and people were laid off, the workforce became disengaged and discouraged as they saw their job security vanishing before their eyes.

Today, the author claims, as many as two thirds of American workers are in what she calls a psychological recession: "an emotional state in which people feel extremely vulnerable and afraid for their futures...[and] expect the worst to happen, so they see no reason to give it their all." They're either actively looking for new jobs or are going through the motions in current positions. Bardwick calls for a "twenty-first century safety net that will reduce the fear by providing financial support and a good sense of community, while avoiding a reinstatement of entitlement attitudes."

On another front, Freada Kapor Klein, co-founder of the Level Playing Field Institute, looks into discrimination that drives knowledge workers out of the well-intentioned corporations that don't fully realize the assumptions and stereotypes that continue to plague their corporate culture.

To show the cost of bias, financial and human, and to bring to life the types of discrimination and unfair treatment many people face, the author profiles three fictional characters "as they negotiate life in a high-end corporate workplace." Then, she offers a framework corporate leaders can follow to identify and uproot those barriers.

If you're looking for ways to recruit or retain talented people, both Bardwick and Klein offer strategic, smart suggestions for establishing a workplace that is welcoming to a diverse set of people and committed to their job satisfaction and growth.

We Are Smarter Than Me on Morning Edition

Tomorrow, Thursday, morning, Barry Libert and Jon Spector will be on NPR's Morning Edition to talk about We Are Smarter Than Me. It starts at 8:50 ET.

Tune in tomorrow. If you miss it, it will be archived on the website: www.npr.org

On Strategy: Paralyzing Fear

One trend that has come up in various conversations I've had lately has been the barriers to productivity. There are, of course, the literal barriers of corporate red tape, financing and other practical matters. I also had an invigorating conversation earlier this week about weaknesses as barriers with Dave over at The Freak Factor. Dave's a champion for acknowledging weaknesses and finding the right context to use them to foster productivity.

Another barrier to productivity is fear. I think one of the things we fear is innovation. And I'm not speaking of the changes that come with it. More so the literal shaking in your boots over the decision of what step to take next.

We live in an innovative world. Millions of ideas are accessible at our fingertips. It's easy to become overwhelmed by the influx of new ideas (think 6,000 business books are published each year). Sometimes too many ideas can become paralyzing.

Paralysis is Dan and Chip's message in their latest Fast Company piece [side note: I highly recommend checking out the Heath brothers' book if you haven't already].

A simple strategy can breath life into a paralytic state, making decisions relatively easy to make. Simplicity allows people to act, say Dan and Chip. Take an Australian Credit Union:

Even a one-liner can ease paralysis. The scrappy Savings & Loans Credit Union in Adelaide, Australia, has an internal strategic motto: "We don't want to be first but we sure as hell don't want to be third." The strategy is to stand back and let the first mover take the risk and grab the glory of innovation, then come in right behind and make a copy that's crisper than the original. The lessons for employees are clear. Constantly scan the environment for good ideas. Don't be first, be best. Look for new employees who are good, quick executors, not creative pioneers. And reserve the incentives for people who are improvers, not inventors.

Paralysis is caused by fear. A simple strategy can help reduce some of the fear and ambiguity associated with any decision. One spot to go for helping define strategy is the book Purpose. From Todd:

Nikos' thesis is four types of purpose matter for the business/competitive world. There are the discoverers who thrive finding the new. There are the helpers who are believe the world is a better place when those around them are happy. The strivers believe in excellence above all else. Heroes are the larger than life companies change the course of history, for better or worse.

For us, it's about being helpful. Everything we do is built around being helpful to authors, publishers, readers and businesses. That's built into our strategy and everything we do runs past that litmus test.

For Costco, it's about saving people money. For Apple, it's about being innovative. What's your strategy?

[As a side note here, a friend of mine sent me a post from Kathy Sierra on fear the other day. It's an older post as Kathy stopped writing awhile back. It's on understanding fear and overcoming it. Worth a look.]

Chip Conley on Maslow

I have a new podcast posted where I interview Chip Conley, author of Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo From Maslow.

New Excerpt - from Recruit or Die

There's a new excerpt up over on the Excerpts Blog. It's taken from Recruit or Die: How Any Business Can Beat the Big Guys in the War for Young Talent by Chris Resto, Ian Ybarra and Ramit Sethi. More than money and perks, the authors say, fresh-out-of-school candidates are looking for opportunities to stand out, move around quickly, and build up a strong resume of experiences and achievements. They offer college recruiters the strategies for finding the talented people you need while at the same time--and by following good practices--building a diverse and dynamic staff.

Here's a snippet of the excerpt, wherein the authors discuss the difficulties of recruiting minorities:

Diversity is one of the most difficult, and sometimes controversial, aspects of college recruiting. Competition is fierce, and the number of quality minority candidates is disproportionately low. Consider the plight of employers in the technology sector. Of all engineering students across the country, only 6.6 percent are African American, 7 percent are Hispanic, and less than 1 percent are Native American. One recruiting manager from a medium-sized software company said, "It makes me pull my hair out."

Check out the excerpt: http://800ceoread.com/excerpts/archives/007418.html

Business Books About The NFL

I am a sucker for NFL books. I love the sport (yes, my fantasy team posted their first win this week) and I am even more fascinated by the business of the NFL. Last year I interviewed Mark Yost about his book Tailgating, Sacks, and Salary Caps which deal with the business of the NFL.

This fall, there are two more books that caught my attention:

Hiring Secrets of the NFL: How Your Company Can Select Talent Like a Champion by Isaac Cheifetz uses the NFL as a metaphor for bringing the best people into the organization. Did you know second round picks more often become Pro-Bowl players than first round? Yet look where all the emphasis is placed by teams and in the media. At 120 pages, it is quick and punchy.

The second book is called Brand NFL By Michael Oriard. This one might be hard to place at the local bookstore having been published by University of North Carolina Press. I'll let you read the Washington Post review for more on the title, but let me quote one paragraph from the piece constrasting Oriard's book with two others:

Oriard traces this evolution in convincing detail. He is scarcely the first former player to write about the game -- Jerry Kramer's Instant Replay (1968), published while its author was still a member of the Green Bay Packers, remains to this day the best book about football qua football -- but the combination of his playing experience and his deep knowledge of the league's inner business workings makes for a unique and useful point of view. Much of the material in the first two-thirds of the book will be familiar to readers of Michael MacCambridge's America's Game (2004), the best history of pro football to date, but his discussion of what can fairly be called the game's larger meaning is especially interesting and insightful.

(I had to get a Packers reference into this post :)

Fall preview: Giving Notice by Freada Kapor Klein

We've had a steady flow of advanced copies of fall books. I thought I would go through a few of them, this week, and give you a preview of what's coming. Below is part of a press release that accompanied the book Giving Notice: Why the Best and the Brightest Leave the Workplace and HOW YOU CAN HELP THEM STAY by Freada Kapor Klein, coming out in October.

Klein focuses on the hidden causes that are destroying workplace meritocracy (a system based on rewarding ability and talent). Giving Notice is "low on jargon and filled with common sense approaches to solve the current imbalance" of minorities and women in positions of leadership. This book is one of many we're seeing on the "international war for talent." It also fits nicely into a growing group of books on the current (and ineffective) career model. Using a combination of quantitative research and anecdotal evidence, Klein addresses nation-wide and world-wide biases, unconscious ideas about stereotypes and commonly accepteed business practices, and the economic, corporate, and human capitol costs of the brain drain. From the press release:

Corporate Leavers: What My Employer Could Have Done to Help Me Stay

This revealing survey is based on the Level Playing Field's exclusive Corporate Leaver's Study conducted in January 2007. LPFI began with 19,000 potential survey subjects to yield 1,700 professionals and managers who met our criteria and completed the survey.**

People of Color: Very likely to have stayed if employer had...

• 34 percent: Offered better management which recognized your abilities


• 30 percent: Offered schedule flexibility such as flex time, alternative working hours, or telecommuting


• 29 percent: Offered to pay you more fairly


• 29 percent: Offered a more positive work environment

Gays and Lesbians: Very likely to have stayed if employer had...

• 43 percent: Offered more or better benefits


• 41: Offered to pay you more fairly


• 35 percent: Offered schedule flexibility such as flex time, alternative working hours, or telecommuting

Caucasian Women: Very likely to have stayed if employer had...

• 24 percent: Offered to pay you more fairly


• 20 percent: Offered schedule flexibility such as flex time, alternative working hours, or telecommuting


• 20 percent: Offered more or better benefits

Caucasian Men: Very likely to have stayed if employer had...

• 28 percent: Offered to pay you more fairly


• 20: Offered more or better benefits


• 18 percent: Offered better management which recognized your abilities

The survey also included results that indicated which aspects of work life each group felt more strongly about than their colleagues. It's interesting to see that people value the same things, just in different orders and strengths. Some might say, "we already know this," or "this is intuitive," to which one might respond, "so what are you doing about it?"

**Level Playing Field Institute was founded by Dr. Freada Kapor Klein in 2001. The Institute promotes innovative approaches to fairness in higher education and the workplace.

A New Season begins - August 2007 Books

I know it is only a few of days into August, but we are starting to see and think about the fall.

Jack is quoted today in a Bloomburg News story about Dream Manager by Matthew Kelly. He is a little more positive about the book than might be evident from the quote. We'll be featuring it as a Jack Covert Selects this month.

I have been reading a really interesting book called Super Crunchers by Ian Ayres. I am writing a couple of posts now about the book and we'll be reviewing it this month as well.

Here are couple other titles making an August release:

• Recruit or Die: How Any Business Can Beat the Big Guys in the War for Young Talent by Chris Resto, Ian Ybarra, and Ramit Sethi
• What Made Jack Welch Jack Welch: How Ordinary People Become Extraordinary Leaders by Stephen H. Baum with Dave Conti
• Remarkable Leadership: Unleashing Your Leadership Potential One Skill At A Time by Kevin Eikenberry

45 Things You Do That Drive Your Boss Crazy

Recently I paged through 45 Things You Do That Drive Your Boss Crazy: And How to Avoid Them by Anita Bruzzese, author of the column "On the Job." Most of the items in this book were common sense: Telling Dirty Jokes and Cussing on the Job; Having Poor Writing and Spelling Skills; Wearing the Wrong Thing to Work; Gossiping; Failing to Learn from Mistakes.

Here are a few I wasn't expecting:

17. Losing Sleep

"While the National Sleep Foundation (NSF) recommends seven to nine hours of sleep a night, their survey found that American adults average seven hours on weeknights, down about two hours a night over the last fifty years. Some twenty to thirty million adults experience occasional sleep problems, but forty million others suffer from one of the eighty-four identified sleep disorders.

The chronic lack of sleep is taking a toll on our bodies and our minds. The NSF has found sleep problems can make daily life more stressful and cause you to be less productive. It weakens your ability to concentrate to the point that accomplishing tasks becomes more difficult and you are more easily irritated. Overal, sleep loss has been found to affect tasks requiring memory, learning and logical reasoning.

...So it all comes down to this: If you're not getting enough sleep, you will be cranky, forgetful, less productive, more likely to call in sick and run the risk of having a wreck on the way to or from work. See why the boss cares if you're getting enough shut-eye?"

36. Lacking Knowledge of Current Events

In today's fast-paced marketplace, bosses depend greatly on an employee's ability to grow and to change as needed, and part of this ability comes from understanding the bigger picture. If an employee can't grasp important world events and stay current on developments, the boss will worry the employee simply has limited learning capacity. ...In 1964, 81 percent of Americans read a daily newspaper while only 54 percent do today. Millions of people surf the Internet every day but the sites they visit may have absolutely nothing to do with current events--only 11 percent of young people say it's a major source of news. The three nightly news programs have seen their ratings plunge 44 percent since 1980.

Corporate leaders also are concerned about the image of "the ugly American"--the person who is ignorant of world events and has little or no interest in what goes on outside of the United States. Since many employers do business globally--or at least make money from international visitors to this country--providing an image of being educated and aware of the world is important.

...That's why when you can demonstrate to your boss that you not only know who is the chief justice of the United States but can speak intelligently about the city council's next election, then you've just risen a notch in the boss's eyes.

I'm not sure this is the type of book a company would buy for each of its employees (would you be just slightly offended by the title?), but it is the type of book that would fit nicely into a package for the new young professional. Here are a few other titles we've written about that could be included:

My Reality Check Bounced! The Twentysomething's Guide to Cashing in on Your Real-World Dreams by Jason Ryan Dorsey

Blog post: http://800ceoread.com/blog/archives/006758.html

From New Recruit to High Flyer: Non-nonsense Advice on How to Fast Track Your Career by Hugh Karseras

Blog post: http://800ceoread.com/blog/archives/006698.html

StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup's Now, Discover Your Strengths by Tom Rath

Jack Covert Selects: http://800ceoread.com/blog/archives/006898.html

Blog post: http://800ceoread.com/blog/archives/006917.html

Blog post: http://800ceoread.com/blog/archives/006827.html

The Internal Attack of the Ego

Yes, fighting can be a great creative tool when ego doesn't get in the way.

On that note, Josh explains that ego often gets in the way of collaboration. To this, Audrey responds that for any successful collaboration, we must let go of our false sense of control.

A "Weird Idea that Works"

This brief excerpt reminded me quite a bit of the discussions we have here at 800-CEO-READ.

(From Chapter 8 of Weird Ideas that Work by Robert I. Sutton)

Find Some Happy People and Get Them to Fight (Weird Idea #5)

If you want innovation, you need happy warriors, upbeat people who know the right way to fight. A growing body of research suggests that conflict over ideas is good, especially for groups and organizations that do creative work. Constant argument can mean there is a competition to develop and test as many good ideas as possible, that there is wide variation in knowledge and perspectives. One study, for example, showed that when group members fought over conflicting ideas, it provoked them to weave others' ideas together with their own, to insist that others provide a compelling logical rationale for their ideas, and to contribute still more ideas. The resulting solutions were more comprehensive, integrated, and well-defended.

Even though our conversations sometimes feel circular and drawn-out, I feel strongly that the conflict and questioning our creative team brings to new projects ultimately make the results even better. With a few ground rules (like Be Nice, and Don't Yell), a group of strong-minded, passionate people can utilize conflict to shape a good idea into a great product.

Sutton differentiates between destructive and constructive conflict. Destructive conflict is argument over relationships or personalities, while "task" or "intellectual" (constructive) conflict happens when people argue over ideas (86). He presents evidence that groups are more successful and effective at creative work when relatively happy, upbeat people enrich decision-making with facts, alternatives, questions, and defense. He warns, however, that "intellectual conflicts are never so free of personal animus, stubbornness, or anger as this distinction implies."

Groups that fight over ideas can, all too easily, slip into nasty personal conflict, especially when reputations, careers, and big bucks are riding on the group's performance. People who have their ideas attacked may, perhaps rightly, believe they are facing thinly veiled personal attacks. These negative reactions can make it hard to learn from critical comments. They may also provoke revenge, which can be cloaked as rational arguments against an opponent's position or be unbridled personal attacks against the critic's skill or integrity.

Sutton suggests some antidotes to these lurking fears or potential disruptions. Humor, for one, brings relief and positive feelings to the group. Management that keeps its employees happy also contributes to an environment in which intellectual conflict is constructive. He even suggests that "people who are successful at creative work and are involved in other kinds of tasks with high failure rates might need to be more than just optimistic. To keep moving forward and to maintain their mental health, they might benefit by deluding themselves about the probability of their success." Overestimating their chances and being overconfident can inspire creatives to work harder.

Sutton also recommends hiring a few grumpy people--after all, they're often better at finding errors and offering legitimate criticism--but keeping them away from the optimists. As he puts it, "when you need their expertise and critique, bring them out briefly, and then send them back into isolation."

We've also written about Weird Ideas that Work here:

http://800ceoread.com/blog/archives/007075.html

and here:
http://800ceoread.com/blog/archives/007054.html

New Excerpt - Fired Up or Burned Out

There's a new excerpt up on the Excerpts Blog. It's taken from the introduction to Fired Up or Burned Out: How to Reignite Your Team's Passion, Creativity, and Productivity by Michael Lee Stallard.
The author presents three keys that can empower a leader to transform even a lethargic, disconnected organization into an impassioned, innovative, and thriving workplace.

"In this book you will learn how to increase the fire and passion inside people that is necessary for individuals and organizations to achieve their potential. The approach I will describe is based on the results of E Pluribus Partners' multiyear study of leaders who succeeded and those who failed to engage the people they led. Our work draws upon explanations and insights identified from diverse fields of knowledge, including psychology, sociology, neuroscience, political science, organizational behavior, systems theory, history, philosophy, and religion."

Link to the excerpt: http://800ceoread.com/excerpts/archives/007114.html

Bridging the Generational Divide

The author of Motivating The "What's In It For Me?" Workforce, Cam Marston, offered us the essay below for our web site.

(It reminds me of this essay by Anna Quindlen and this blog entry by our very own Kate.)

* * * * * * *

Retaining Youth

You’ve hired them. Now how can you keep them around?

By Cam Marston
Author of Motivating the "What's in it For Me?" Workforce

Things aren’t always what they seem. If I could give you one bit of advice on dealing with the latest generation of employees to come under your management, it would be to remember those words…things aren’t always what they seem.

If you are like most business leaders, you’ve no doubt noticed a trend in the way employees behave in recent years. Most likely you consider it a negative trend – too much entitlement, not enough loyalty, no work ethic, only interested in themselves, and on and on. But I challenge you to consider that perhaps these are not negative trends, just different ones. Things aren’t always what they seem.

To better understand who your employees are and what drives them to succeed, perhaps it’s easiest to understand who they are not. You. That’s right. They may even be your offspring but in the workplace they bear little resemblance to the "you" of yesteryear. Gen Xers (born 1965-1979) and Millenials (born after 1980) are operating in this world with a completely different perspective. Their definitions of loyalty, time and success are often quite different from yours. Rest assured they do recognize all of these concepts and value them in very important ways. The key to your organization’s future success is understanding how the Millenials view the world and using that knowledge to motivate them in a way that works. Here’s a hint: meet them where they are and they will achieve your underlying goals; try to force them to fit your definitions and they will run for the door every time.

So let’s take a look at some of the pervasive myths about our youngest generation in the workforce and discuss why these changes are happening and how you can tailor your workplace to meet the needs of you, your employees and the company.

Myth: Younger generations have no work ethic.

Reality: Younger generations have a self-centered work ethic. This is not necessarily the negative that it may seem at first. Millenials are dedicated to completing their task well. They have not been raised in a way that demands them to look around and see what should be done next. Instead they ask "what is my job" and go about figuring the best, fastest way to complete that task. Then they consider themselves done. This is a key differentiator between your employees and yourself.

The younger they are, the more your employees view their jobs as "something to do between the weekends." For most, early employment has nothing to do with a career path; it is a way to earn money to have fun in their free time. And that is okay. When you understand what motivates your employees you are better able to set mutual expectations for success. Instead of being frustrated that your youngest employees are not interested in climbing your corporate ladder, embrace their true motivation – reliable spending money – and use it to your advantage. When you tell an employee, "I understand this is not your lifelong career, but to earn the paycheck every week, here is what I expect …" they are much more likely to respond than if you try to motivate with promises of promotions and titles down the road.

Understanding that being at the job isn’t as important to Millenials as completing the assigned task also opens up new opportunities for motivation and reward. Younger employees are very likely to respond to offers of paid time off. A leading retail organization has recognized this new way of thinking with its Working Hard Card: When managers witness an employee rising to a challenge, exceeding expectations or otherwise giving 110% they can hand the employee a Working Hard Card on the spot. Each card is worth a set amount of paid time off to be used at the employee’s discretion. It is a simple strategy that rewards employees in the currency they value most – their time.

Myth: They don’t want to put in the hours to get ahead.

Reality: They are willing to put in the time to do the job, however they are uninterested in "face time." Gen Xers and Millenials view time as a currency. While Baby Boomers tend to see time as something to invest, the younger generations view it as a valuable currency not to be wasted. These are the generations that demand work-life balance and paid time off. They want to get the job done, then put it behind them and enjoy life.

Boomer managers have a tendency to lose the interest of their Millenial employees by looking too far into the future. Millenials live in timeframe based on right now. Their world has proven that nothing is a guarantee – from nationwide layoffs to war to soaring divorce rates, they have decided that there’s not a lot you can count on. As a result they are not interested in promotion plans for five years from now. They don’t even want to know what will happen at the end of the summer. Life is uncertain. To reach the Millenial employee and reduce turnover, make it certain.

Tell your employee that you have a plan. Take pains to ensure it is in a timeframe short enough for them to envision. Be prepared to fulfill your promise – once fooled, forever jaded. This approach feeds into their reality, while simultaneously building trust and buying you more time. Reward small successes along the way, string these milestones together and you will soon realize longer tenures among your staff.

Myth: They have no respect for authority.

Reality: They have great respect for leaders and loyalty. But no, as a rule they don’t respect authority "just because." For the younger generations, every ounce of loyalty and respect must be earned. But when it is earned, it is given fiercely.

In fact, loyalty to the individual is the number one reason Xers and Millennials stay in the job, especially during the first three, tenuous years. Dissatisfaction with the boss is the number one reason they quit. So in order to increase retention, managers must take a flipped view on leadership – it is no longer enough to hire the right people and show them the way, now you must BE the right person to win their affection. Sounds a little touchy-feely for the workforce, yet the faster leaders understand this new relationship, the sooner you will see the reward in the way of increased retention.

There is one big caveat to the "be the person they want you to be" approach to leadership, however. Millenials have a tendency to seek tight bonds – they want a boss who is close, caring and aware. And you can be all that. It is very easy to cross the line between "boss as advocate" to "boss as friend." That is a slippery slope. It can be especially tempting in situations where managers and employees are close in age. When activities outside of the office become too regular, too casual or largely social in nature, it is time to examine how this will affect your role as a leader. What Millennial need most out of a boss is a guide, not a social life.

Myth: They don’t want to grow up.

Reality: They really don’t know how. The youngest generations in today’s workforce are facing a delayed adulthood. They are getting married later, having children later and just generally facing the "real world" later. This isn’t the result of a mutated maturity gene, it just is. And if we are being completely honest, Boomers had a lot to do with why it’s happening. First, as parents, Boomers had a tendency to coddle their children and use their own good fortune to make sure their children didn’t experience adversity. Second, as career models, Boomers demonstrated the toll of working long hours and "paying one’s dues" in a way that made their children less likely to follow in their footsteps. Millenials today look at the corporate ladder and think, "there must be another way."

My advice to you – don’t waste time wishing they were different. Don’t spend your energy comparing today’s youth to the desires and drive you had at age 18. These employees are not a reflection of you, nor are they an earlier version of you. And again, that is okay. Your task is to take this new understanding and use it to reposition how you interact with, motivate and reward your staff.

Take attire for instance. Your 18-year-old self would have gladly donned whatever uniform was necessary to fit the company mold. Be it pressed khakis and a tie or a specific corporate uniform, fitting in was part of the package. Today’s youth wants to stand out. They want their individuality to shine through even when required to provide a consistent standard of service and performance. Balancing corporate needs with individual desires takes some creative thinking.

Home Depot is one company that has addressed this dilemma at a very basic level – company uniforms. They simply require that all employees wear a standard Home Depot apron. Be yourself underneath (within reason) and show the customer that you are on the Home Depot team with this bright orange