Ropella

Proper Recruiting Strategy in Uncertain Times

By Patrick Ropella  Posted 1 day, 21 hours, 28 minutes ago.  

Traditionally, our economic cycles have swung like a pendulum.  As a result, recruiting peaks and valleys have been relatively predictable. Your company has probably been able to enjoy the ride, anticipating needed shifts in recruiting scope and strategy. But hang on – the ride’s getting wilder. Today’s unpredictable economy has made recruiting feel more like a rollercoaster than a gentle swing.  Instead of the conventional highs and lows, your company must be prepared to handle radical, unpredictable changes in human capital needs. Here are a few tips for how to do it:

Defend your recruiting budget. Above all else, fight against your CFO’s temptation to institute a company-wide hiring freeze.  The knee-jerk reaction may initially cut costs.  But, it will also seriously impede your company’s responsiveness once the economy improves.  Instead of issuing a blanket freeze and slashing recruiters, suggest that your CFO implement a spot-freeze.  Analyze which business units are growing and which are shrinking, then select the best targets for hiring suspension.

Prepare for an onslaught of applicants. Company layoffs and downsizing translate into more work for your recruiters.  Scrutinize your resume sorting process now, to ensure you can handle the higher volume while maintaining your standards for quality.

Churn your talent pool. The demand for relentless innovation in the chemical industry will continuously alter the skills needed by your firm at any particular point – even during this economic downturn.  To keep pace with rapid change, you must “churn” your available talent pool – continuously hiring workers with new and needed skills, while simultaneously releasing employees whose skills are obsolete or whose performance is poor.

Churning may seem counterintuitive in today’s slump, when you may be tempted to declare a moratorium on hiring.  However, the sluggish economy provides the precise strategic rationale for churning – right now, when your competitors are laying off top employees, it’s faster and cheaper to recruit new talent (innovators with the skills you need) than to develop it in existing employees.

For more information on these and other methods of properly recruiting during negative circumstances, read Patrick Ropella’s white paper on the topic: Recruiting in Uncertain Times.

 

 

10 Mistakes Leaders Should Avoid at All Costs

By Guest  Posted 1 month, 6 days, 12 hours, 55 minutes ago.  

No one is perfect. No one can be right 100 percent of the time (even if you are Jack Welch or Steve Jobs), including an organization’s leaders. But there are mistakes, and then there are MISTAKES. I have found 10 basic essentials that all leaders should have on their list entitled “things to avoid at all costs,” lest they end up on the wrong end of a no-confidence Board vote, a Shareholder lawsuit, or worst of all, an SEC subpoena. As a former (and very green) CEO, I was guilty of all of these leadership mistakes, and they cost me, my executive team, employees, shareholders, and my family, dearly. The sad part of this is that I could have avoided all of these mistakes. So, please learn from my failures. Some of these mistakes may be obvious; some may be a bit more obscure. They are all critical.

1. Pride and Arrogance. The downfall of many leaders is that their early successes begin to inflate their egos. Never forget your roots, don’t think you are invincible or infallible, and don’t put yourself above anything or anyone. An ancient script says, “Pride goes before destruction,” and it behooves leaders to tattoo that on their forearms. The trappings and power of the office lulled me into a false sense of security. I began to believe that I was superior to other people and institutions, and that I could do no wrong.
2. Negative Influences. There is no lack of advice in this world. Some voices offer valuable counsel that can help keep you on track. Other voices will nudge you ever so slightly until one day you wake up and find yourself way off course. Tune in to the voices of value and tune the others out. I had plenty of people surrounding me, all eager to give advice. My challenge was, sifting through the ones worth listening to, and ignoring the others. How can you tell the difference? Listen to different perspectives from divergent sets of people, and then pay attention to the still small voice inside of you. The longer you listen, the better listener and discerner you will become.
3. Lacking Integrity. There are many things you can lack and still steer clear of danger. Integrity isn’t one of them. Establish a set of sound ethics policies, integrate them into all business processes, communicate them broadly to all employees, and make clear that you will not tolerate any deviation from any of them. Then live by them. You have to carve out time to set the “integrity agenda,” for your own edification, and then to make it clear to the organization. I took for granted people would be able to figure out right from wrong. The problem is, in the middle of a hectic and pressure filled quarter, I myself failed to figure it out.
4. Majoring in Minor Things. This is one of Jim Rohn’s basic principles for success. You cannot be successful in the long run, being 10 miles wide and an inch deep. There are a handful of things that are important enough to account for the greatest impact. Take a cue from Steve Jobs and get rid of the distractions. Tie your vision and strategy to the truly impactful things and execute those to the best of your ability. I failed by trying to do it all. You can’t. You will hit the wall, and so will the company. I became mediocre at a large number of things.
5. Avoiding. If there are things that you can do, and should do, then do them. Don’t neglect them. The basic business fundamentals cannot be ignored. Strengthen your skills in weak areas or put people in place in whose skill and integrity you trust. I was not able to recognize the areas I was weak in quickly enough to either learn how to do them (sometimes not practical to do) or find people with those skills that I could trust to do them well.
6. Lacking Values. Core values are principles without which life (or business) wouldn’t be worth living. As stated in the book Tribal Leadership, values are what the organization stands in. Establish a set of Core Values that can unite the organization, and then create resonance around them. I am now convinced that Core Values become the foundation of a well-oiled, world-class, customer friendly, ethical organization. I was clueless about this in the past.
7. Blindly Trusting People. Reagan said trust but verify. While leaders can’t do it alone, the wrong people with the wrong skills in the wrong place are a formula for disaster. Allow people to run on “short leashes” until they prove themselves. I did not take the time to properly vet, and then observe key people in their role before I let them fly solo. Any competent, well-grounded person should have no problem with this approach.
8. Spin Doctoring. Many Corporate PR departments teach executives to provide carefully crafted answers to questions to conceal the true facts. Present the facts, tell the truth, communicate the complete story and let the chips fall where they may. This does not mean you should divulge key strategies and give away competitive advantage, but the truth is ALWAYS the truth, while lies will come back to haunt you. My team would spend a too much time crafting the right story, which in hindsight, a waste of time and energy. A better use of that time is to meet challenges and problems head on, and to communicate openly and honestly, not “spin” a story.
9. Short-Cutting. Some companies spend an inordinate amount of time flirting with the gray areas, and engaging in accounting tricks. The ethical, values-based and successful leader understands the law of the farm. As another ancient script says, “do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” At its most basic level, there is no substitute for the natural laws of business. Develop prospects, cultivate relationships, determine needs, propose solutions, close sales, ship product and book revenue. It’s a tried and true process that takes time and skill. There is no substitute for methodical execution. I was impatient and succumbed to the temptation of circumventing the natural process through faulty techniques and flawed actions.
10. Short-Term Focus. Wall Street and shareholders are maniacally focused on short term gains. “What will you do for me next quarter?” is the mantra of the short termer. Don’t cannibalize future results to satisfy the present quarter. If your strategy is solid, stick to your guns, let it work, and remind everyone that you are in it for the long run. We became so obsessed with making the immediate quarter, that we severely impacted future business. As a result, we started the following quarter already behind. This continued to compound until we dug such a hole for ourselves, it was impossible to climb out.

These are the ten things that I discovered can make or break the most charismatic, energetic, brightest and hardworking leader, and also the company. Enrique P. Fiallo is a guest contributor for Ropella Reports. He is an author, speaker, and blogger on purposeful leadership.

It’s Time for Courage

By Dr. Jim Harris  Posted 1 month, 1 week, 6 days, 11 hours, 27 minutes ago.  

During a recent executive workshop I delivered on leadership and management excellence, many participants offered their own experiences in these trying economic times. I was struck by how many in the group are gallantly facing incredibly tough situations within severely down markets. Perhaps you have many of the same issues:

• Do I lay off staff? If so, then who?
• How do I manage and motivate those who remain?
• Do I expand product lines or cut back?
• Is it time to get out of some services?
• Is it time to expand new lines? Which ones? How do we find them?
• Should I reconsider that buyout offer?

While there is no magic formula or simple solution to any of these issues, the one common threat that weaves through each is the absolute necessity for the decision-maker to display courage. Here are five powerful truths to remember on courage.

1. Courageous leaders display courage. Courage is a necessary component of great leadership. War hero and former Presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has said that “leaders who lack courage aren’t leaders.” Be willing to show the courage necessary to your managers, customers, and suppliers through your actions, words, and decisions.
2. Courageous leaders face their fears. In today’s volatile market, if you are not afraid, you are not thinking. Mark Twain once said, “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.” The best way to master your fears is to not let them consume you. Face them, deal with them, and move on.
3. Courageous leaders take charge. Here is an easy way to tell if your management team has courage: in tough times, do they take charge or take cover? I recently helped a young owner of a nationwide company to make some very tough decision he should have make years ago. Leaders must be willing to take charge when things get rough, or risk the very future of their businesses to chance or market whims. People do not follow cowards.
4. Courageous leaders expect opposition. Do not kid yourself: when you take a courageous and proper stance, you will face resistance. At the same time, you will be amazed at the amount of support you will get for the decision. Prepare yourself for the opposition, but remain true to your convictions.
5. Courageous leaders fix what isn’t broke. You may think there is enough going wrong today with your market share, customer base, or supply chain without adding to the misery. But I encourage you to consider that this may be the best time in years to fix things that may be going fine but you know need to change. One timeless leadership truism is good leaders fix what is broke, while great leaders fix what isn’t broke. How can you determine what isn’t broke but needs fixing? One question I ask my clients during strategic planning sessions is: knowing what you know now about this line (product, service), if you were not in it today, would you go into it? Courageous leaders are those who sometimes fix what isn’t broken before it becomes broken, outdated, or drains profits.

Now is the time for courage. I pray these insights help you deal with the decisions you face for the future of your business, your people, and your legacy.

How Great Leaders Approach Leadership

By Dr. Jim Harris  Posted 1 month, 3 weeks, 5 days, 14 hours, 48 minutes ago.  

While many of today’s top-ranked businesses fully embrace excellence in customer service, vendor relations, and even employee satisfaction, they typically fail to realize the importance that excellence in leadership plays in achieving great results.

With the unrelenting pressures we face in business today, it is time for companies to wake up to the truth that excellence in leadership, both now and into the future, is the only way for companies to survive. Without excellent leaders, even the most progressive organizations will struggle for an ever-diminishing percentage of sales and profits and remain trapped in the routine of yesterday’s thinking.

But how can we transform our companies into cultures of leadership excellence that are ready to address today’s problems and are prepared for tomorrow’s challenges? It all begins by getting our thinking straight.

First, leadership excellence must be a prerequisite—not a goal. In other words, excellence should never be the goal—it should be the starting place. To achieve great results, we must set excellence in leadership as the minimum level of acceptable performance, what I call a “standard.” And if excellence is the standard, management must focus first and foremost on how to educate, coach, and develop leadership teams to be excellent.

Second, leadership excellence must be a habit—not an event. After 25 years in leadership development, it still amazes me that so many executives continue to believe that one speech, one training session, or one dinner event is all that is necessary for their people to reach the level of excellence. Regardless of the endeavor, excellence must become a daily (if not hourly) activity that, given time, becomes second nature, an almost unconscious competence that is engrained within each leader with minimal forethought.

Finally, leadership excellence must be a commitment—not a program. No one—none of us—will ever be excellent in anything to which we are not committed. I advise executives that commitment can be defined as satisfying long-term internal needs. Therefore, it is imperative that we determine how to align our long-term needs forleadership excellence within our companies with the long-term internal needs of who we manage. Only through such mutual congruence will leadership excellence become the standard and a habit within our firms. Only those who are really committed to growing excellent leaders will be able to overcome the status quo.

Think about what you have just read. How does your company fit within this scenario? Is leadership excellence the prerequisite… or just a goal? Is leadership excellence a habit … or a random event? Is leadership excellence a commitment … or an occasional training program?

Is leadership excellence even on your operational map?

Tomorrow’s business winners will be those companies that build cultures of leadership excellence. They will be well prepared to conquer any future challenges this crazy, everchanging economy we face. Make leadership excellence a prerequisite,a habit, and a commitment within your team. Don’t delay, get started today!

Top Ten Reasons Why Large Companies Fail To Keep Their Best Talent

By Guest  Posted 2 months, 3 days, 2 hours, 7 minutes ago.  

(Original article linked HERE)

Whether it’s a high-profile tech company like Yahoo!, or a more established conglomerate like GE or Home Depot, large companies have a hard time keeping their best and brightest in house. Recently, GigaOM discussed the troubles at Yahoo! with a flat stock price, vested options for some of their best people, and the apparent free flow of VC dollars luring away some of their best people to do the start-up thing again.

Yet, Yahoo!, GE, Home Depot, and other large established companies have a tremendous advantage in retaining their top talent and don’t. I’ve seen the good and the bad things that large companies do in relation to talent management. Here’s my Top Ten list of what large companies do to lose their top talent :

1. Big Company Bureaucracy.

This is probably the #1 reason we hear after the fact from disenchanted employees. However, it’s usually a reason that masks the real reason. No one likes rules that make no sense. But, when top talent is complaining along these lines, it’s usually a sign that they didn’t feel as if they had a say in these rules. They were simply told to follow along and get with the program. No voice in the process and really talented people say “check please.”

2. Failing to Find a Project for the Talent that Ignites Their Passion.

Big companies have many moving parts — by definition. Therefore, they usually don’t have people going around to their best and brightest asking them if they’re enjoying their current projects or if they want to work on something new that they’re really interested in which would help the company. HR people are usually too busy keeping up with other things to get into this. The bosses are also usually tapped out on time and this becomes a “nice to have” rather than “must have” conversation. However, unless you see it as a “must have,” say adios to some of your best people. Top talent isn’t driven by money and power, but by the opportunity to be a part of something huge, that will change the world, and for which they are really passionate. Big companies usually never spend the time to figure this out with those people.

3. Poor Annual Performance Reviews.

You would be amazed at how many companies do not do a very effective job at annual performance reviews. Or, if they have them, they are rushed through, with a form quickly filled out and sent off to HR, and back to real work. The impression this leaves with the employee is that my boss — and, therefore, the company — isn’t really interested in my long-term future here. If you’re talented enough, why stay? This one leads into #4….

4. No Discussion around Career Development.

Here’s a secret for most bosses: most employees don’t know what they’ll be doing in 5 years. In our experience, about less than 5% of people could tell you if you asked. However, everyone wants to have a discussion with you about their future. Most bosses never engage with their employees about where they want to go in their careers — even the top talent. This represents a huge opportunity for you and your organization if you do bring it up. Our best clients have separate annual discussions with their employees — apart from their annual or bi-annual performance review meetings — to discuss succession planning or career development. If your best people know that you think there’s a path for them going forward, they’ll be more likely to hang around.

5. Shifting Whims/Strategic Priorities.

I applaud companies trying to build an incubator or “brickhouse” around their talent, by giving them new exciting projects to work on. The challenge for most organizations is not setting up a strategic priority, like establishing an incubator, but sticking with it a year or two from now. Top talent hates to be “jerked around.” If you commit to a project that they will be heading up, you’ve got to give them enough opportunity to deliver what they’ve promised.

6. Lack of Accountability and/or telling them how to do their Jobs.

Although you can’t “jerk around” top talent, it’s a mistake to treat top talent leading a project as “untouchable.” We’re not saying that you need to get into anyone’s business or telling them what to do. However, top talent demands accountability from others and doesn’t mind being held accountable for their projects. Therefore, have regular touch points with your best people as they work through their projects. They’ll appreciate your insights/observations/suggestions — as long as they don’t spillover into preaching.

7. Top Talent likes other Top Talent.

What are the rest of the people around your top talent like? Many organizations keep some people on the payroll that rationally shouldn’t be there. You’ll get a litany of rationales explaining why when you ask. “It’s too hard to find a replacement for him/her….” “Now’s not the time….” However, doing exit interviews with the best people leaving big companies you often hear how they were turned off by some of their former “team mates.” If you want to keep your best people, make sure they’re surrounded by other great people.

8. The Missing Vision Thing.

This might sound obvious, but is the future of your organization exciting? What strategy are you executing? What is the vision you want this talented person to fulfill? Did they have a say/input into this vision? If the answer is no, there’s work to do — and fast.

9. Lack of Open-Mindedness.

The best people want to share their ideas and have them listened to. However, a lot of companies have a vision/strategy which they are trying to execute against — and, often find opposing voices to this strategy as an annoyance and a sign that someone’s not a “team player.” If all the best people are leaving and disagreeing with the strategy, you’re left with a bunch of “yes” people saying the same things to each other. You’ve got to be able to listen to others’ points of view — always incorporating the best parts of these new suggestions.

10. Who’s the Boss?

If a few people have recently quit at your company who report to the same boss, it’s likely not a coincidence. We’ll often get asked to come in and “fix” someone who’s a great sales person, engineer, or is a founder, but who is driving everyone around them “nuts.” We can try, but unfortunately, executive coaching usually only works 33% of the time in these cases. You’re better off trying to find another spot for them in the organization — or, at the very least, not overseeing your high-potential talent that you want to keep.

It’s never a one-way street. Top talent has to assume some responsibility as much as the organization. However, with the scarcity of talent — which will only increase in the next 5 years — Smart Organizations are ones who get out in front of these ten things, rather than wait for their people to come to them, asking to implement this list.

By guest contributor, Eric Jackson,
Founder and Managing Member of Ironfire Capital LLC

Five Truths of Employee Retention

By Dr. Jim Harris  Posted 2 months, 3 weeks, 4 days, 3 hours, 11 minutes ago.  

Of the many challenges facing business owners today, few are more imperative than employee retention. Within an ever more competitive labor market, it is essential that managers at all levels of the organization be both educated and trained on how to retain great people. To start your retention training, I encourage you to begin with embracing these five essential truths.

Retention Truth #1: If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys! “You get what you pay for” is an old expression that rings true for employee retention. Yet today’s best-run companies do not get into bidding wars for talent, even though they understand they need to pay slightly above industry standard to better attract and retain the best. It is ridiculous to think you will get world-class customer service you pay below-average wages. To get above-average service and productivity, you must consider pay grades that are above average for your competitors in your area.

Retention Truth #2: People may join a company, but they leave a boss. Whenever I ask management teams “What is the No. 1 reason people leave? I inevitably get the same responses, including no recognition, no promotion opportunities, no training, work not appreciated, lousy benefits, too much stress, overworked, and of course the most popular, a better opportunity and more money. While every one of these is a legitimate reason for someone to leave, they are seldom the main reasons people leave. The No. 1 reason most good people leave is lousy supervision. If the basic supervisor-employee
relationship is good, then top talent is more likely to stay. If the basic supervisor-employee relationship is bad, great people will leave—and leave fast…which leads us to Truth No. 3.

Retention Truth #3: Lousy companies condone lousy manager - Great companies fix lousy managers. Executives and owners often confide in me, “Jim, it’s not that easy. So-and-so (the lousy manager) doesn’t mean any harm…he’s been with our company since it was dirt. And on top of that, he’s my brother-in-law!” Loyalty is one thing, but if you have a manager or supervisor who consistently runs off top talent, you have two choices: fix him (that is, put him through lots of training and self-development now) or get him out of management!

Retention Truth #4: Some people need to go away! Can you think of someone working with you for whom, if you could, you would fill out his application at another company…and then offer to drive him to the interview? Whenever I am asked, “What is the fastest way to turn around low morale,” my first
response is always “Get rid of the turkeys!” Your eagles do not want to hand around and be dragged down by turkeys. My second response to the fastest way to turn around morale is, “Find more eagles.”

Retention Truth #5: Retention is a leadership problem—not a human resources problem. Leadership, whether strong or weak, ultimately determines the overall retention rate of your company. Retaining great employees is far too important to completely delegate to mid-level line managers or your human resources managers. (Hey – I used to be a mid-level HR manager in my early business life). Employee retention must be front and center within every strategic initiative, expansion plan, or turnaround situation you face.

Pay attention to these five truths and address them in your overall plan and you will stay ahead of your competition in the retention of top talent.

Commencement Speech at Stanford by Steve Jobs Pt. 2

By Guest  Posted 3 months, 2 weeks, 1 day, 20 hours, 11 minutes ago.  

The following is the final of two parts of a speech delivered to the class of 2005 at Stanford University:

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 thing 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 doctors’ code for “prepare to die.” It means to try and tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next ten years to tell them, in just a few months. It means to make sure that 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 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 doctor 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, thankfully, I am 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’s 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’s 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, 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 Catalogue, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stuart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late Sixties, 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 thirty-five years before Google came along. I was idealistic, overflowing with neat tools and great notions. Stuart and his team put out several issues of the The Whole Earth Catalogue, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-Seventies 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 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.

By guest contributor, Steve Jobs,
February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011

Commencement Speech at Stanford by Steve Jobs Pt. 1

By Guest  Posted 3 months, 3 weeks, 1 day, 16 hours, 33 minutes ago.  

The following is the first of two parts of a speech delivered to the class of 2005 at Stanford University:

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 six months but then stayed around as a drop-in for another eighteen 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 graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, 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’ve got an unexpected baby boy. Do you want him?” They said, “Of course.” My biological mother found out later 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 go to college.

This was the start in my life. And seventeen years later, I did go to college, but I naïvely 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 of how college was going to help me figure it out, and here I was, spending all 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 far more 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 five-cent deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the seven 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 sans-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 that calligraphy class and personals 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 10 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, karma, whatever—because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference.

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 twenty. We worked hard and in ten years, Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees. We’d just released our finest creation, the Macintosh, a year earlier, and I’d just turned thirty, 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, and so at thirty, 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’d 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 in 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 world’s 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 and I returned to Apple and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance, and Lorene 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’s going to hit 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 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, and 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. Don’t settle.

By guest contributor, Steve Jobs,
February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011

Don’t Just Change: Transform

By Dr. Jim Harris  Posted 3 months, 4 weeks, 1 day, 16 hours, 12 minutes ago.  

To survive today, you may need to go beyond merely altering your business. Here’s how to start.

Over the years, we have all led change initiatives, yet few of us have encountered what we are experiencing today. In many cases, we need something more than just managing change within our businesses. Webster’s New World Dictionary defines “transform” as “to change the form, appearance, nature, or function of.” Effective leaders perpetually challenge themselves and those around them, not on whether they need to change, but rather on how radically they need to change. Today’s best leaders across all industries understand that within today’s ultra-competitive marketplace, mere change may not be enough to even survive.

So where does transformational leadership begin? The first step is to understand that you cannot manage a transformation, you must lead one. Managing is about systems and processes and reports. Transformational leadership is about the future, the new, and the unique. Managing implies doing something better, faster, or more efficiently. Leading implies doing something completely new, different, and challenging. You cannot manage your company into a better one from behind your desk. You must be out in front, leading the charge.

Second, transformation leaders relentlessly “sell” their new vision.  They are passionate about where the company is going, why it must go there, and how every employee must join the journey.  They understand that real transformation does not come out of a task group or committee – it is born and breed inside the heart and soul of a leader.

Third, transformational leaders must have both the willingness and the ability to create change, not just react to it. Willingness suggests a high motivation to want to change. Ability suggests having the skills and knowledge to make the changes work.

Here are three questions to help you think about transforming your current operation:

1. What must my company do so that we could accomplish our goals? You are the current skill level of your team, but there could be significant gaps of potential accomplishments, perhaps in areas you have not considered. For example, if your people could learn better sales skills, you could quickly grow new product lines and sell more value-added service.
2. How do we accomplish this? This question pushes you to think beyond mere skill sets and into what your team must transform themselves into in order to reach the accomplishment. In the above example, your people might need to become competent communicators, great listeners, and articulate knowledge sources. By focusing on what they need to become, you quickly see new avenues of personal and professional growth.
3. How must I lead them to get there? Now comes what you must do to lead your team there—wherever there is. In my coaching and leadership development programs, I focus on three essential elements: to envision, to engage, and to execute.

Now get out a clean sheet of paper and answer these questions for your company or team. Let your imagination go. Ask your colleagues to do the same. Use these simple yet probing questions to jump start your journey toward transformational leadership.

Good Managers Do This

By Patrick Ropella  Posted 4 months, 6 days, 5 hours, 43 minutes ago.  

Good Managers Trust and Respect Their Employees
As Wayne Outlaw, author of Smart Staffing, rightly points out, “You can demand obedience because of your rank, but you have to earn trust and respect.” And the only way to accomplish that is to show trust and respect to your employees. Many bosses fail in this effort because of their need to micromanage. In particular, managers who are used to keeping tight reign on their projects, sometimes find it difficult to give their staff the freedom to succeed.

In one instance, a manager working for a major chemical company needed such a ridiculous level of control over his staff, that it caused a major disruption to the departmental workflow. This particular manager insisted that all of his engineers check in with him every hour so he could remain in constant contact with them. This boss would frequently interrupt his employees, demanding that they drop everything when he called them. Not surprisingly, turnover in his department was high.

Provide your employees with necessary information and support, but trust them to do their jobs successfully; no competent employee likes to be micromanaged when it’s not necessary. By being a guide rather than a dictator, your chances of retaining staff greatly increase.

Good Managers Mentor Their Employees
Your obvious duty as a mentor is to take an active interest in the professional development of your staff. Encourage them to take training classes, introduce them to potential allies in the company or chemical industry, and help them map out their own career paths. The easier you make it for employees to advance professionally, the more likely they’ll stay with your department or organization.

On a more general level, mentoring means putting the best interests of your employees above everything else—even if you have to question company policy occasionally. One manager asked for and received permission to give each member of his team a raise above the stated maximum because they had completed a critical project successfully. Such shows of support can dramatically increase your staff’s loyalty and retention rate.

Good Managers Care About Their Employees
If you view employees merely as workplace resources, you’ll always battle retention problems. It’s essential to support and value your staff as people, especially during times of personal crisis. The work/life balance is difficult under the best circumstances, but when an employee is dealing with situations like illness, death, or divorce, he or she needs to know you are an ally.

You may worry that people will use personal misfortunes as an excuse to take advantage of the company. But good employees have no desire to ruin their work reputations. The following story serves as a good example. Shortly after beginning a new job, one man learned that his mother was admitted to intensive care with a serious illness. His boss was completely sympathetic, encouraging the employee to come and go so he could see his mother during the short visiting hours. The employee never forgot this act of kindness, and 10 years later, he is still with the same boss. By giving employees sufficient latitude during troubled times, you can earn their commitment for the long-term.

Good Managers Motivate Their Employees
Everyone can be motivated, just not in the same way. One employee works hard to be promoted, another for bigger bonuses, and yet another for the sense of accomplishment. You can provide perks ranging from recognition awards to achievement bonuses. Yet if these “benefits” are not valued by your staff, they’re worthless. Your challenge is to find out what motivates each individual, and then help him or her to attain that objective.

Communicate with your staff on a regular basis to find out what they want. One manager hands out index cards to team members at each quarterly review meeting. Employees then write down the workplace benefits they desire, as well as any issues that might cause them to leave. By collecting this information, he finds it easier to keep his staff content and productive.

Excerpted from Patrick Ropella’s white paper, “Improve Retention by Being a Better Manager,” available at http://www.Ropella.com under the “Toolbox” tab.