Imagine a world in which learning were criminalized.

• Where zero-tolerance policies were used to punish students for honest mistakes.
• Where doing your best with the information you have and the latest in modern technology were not enough to protect you from liability.
• Where simply anticipating the impact of macro-economic shifts on your company could result in a groundswell of distrust and populist angst, while not anticipating them could get you subpoenaed to testify before Congress.
• Where doing something right but unpopular—ie, trusting others to see beyond the tips of their noses—can get you maligned and cost you your job. (I be the author of that first article there would love to take it back, huh?)

Can you picture that?

Scary place, isn’t it?

Right. Welcome to the United States of You’re Not Allowed to Fail, Not Allowed to Take Risks, and Not Allowed to Learn.

Our society has grown increasingly intolerant of mistakes. Minor mistakes are now often fatal, stifling research, squashing productive debate, and killing progress. And while you may learn more from your successes than your failures, you can’t succeed until you feel safe, and that means being able to risk failure.

Exacerbating this problem is the fact that mistakes are inevitable—we’re still human! Which creates a conundrum: we can’t help erring, but to err is to commit career suicide. So what happens instead? We must now expend energy lying to ourselves about the definition of failure, covering our own asses in front of others, and tearing down opponents before they have a chance to tear us down.

The upshot of these behaviors is that people who tell the truth about what it takes to great get laughed out of town, while our world starts filling up with crooks, bums, “pathetic” blowhards, liars, and mudslingers who play to the illusion.

Because when everyone’s focused on how to spin the fail, the ones who rise to the “top” are the ones who spin it best.

Not good.

As Mary Jo and Julie noted on my blog yesterday, failure is an integral part of the learning process. Take it away, and you rob people of that dear teacher, experience.

Now here are four simple ideas for getting back to goodness:

First, and most importantly, when failure happens to you, get back up and keep going. Incompetence is a phase. Push through.

Second, practice patience. Spend more time supporting others than poking fun at them or bemoaning how you’re surrounded by idiots. You’re not. You’re surrounded by people just like you. If you find yourself judging others for stupid reasons or turning your world into something reminiscent of junior high, stop. Then send an email to a friend and ask him/her what kind of help s/he needs.

Finally, when someone else’s failure impacts you, make like Chris Rock and “Let it slide.” (Link NSFW)

Prepare to let a lot of things slide; we’ve got some ways to go before our afraid-to-fail culture rights itself.

Last weekend, my daughter sat down at the kitchen table and tried to write out the lyrics to one of her favorite songs. It was her first time trying to transcribe lyrics, she struggled, and got so frustrated that she wasn’t “doing it right the first time” that she started to cry.

She’s five. She got through an entire page’s worth of the song before losing track of things in her head and giving up. Most of her spelling was right, too. It was great. She should have been celebrating, but she was mad at herself.

See, she wasn’t done it right the first time.

So, whaddya think? Should I have told her she was right to be upset with herself, called her a quitter, and sent her to her room without dinner?

Or should I have held her until the crying stopped, and then showed her my collection of notebooks and journals that are filled with decades’ worth of stories, observations, poems, quips, drafts, and scribbles, until she understood that “doing right” is something you learn to do after years of mistakes until she smiled her, “Oh, I get it!” smile?

Here’s a clue: it’s the second thing.

If you work in a factory, where your next move is going to be replicated 50,000 times a day, then yes, get it right the first time. But if you are a manager, professional, or knowledge worker of any kind, avoid this phrase at all costs.

Knowledge work ends with a decision, and decisions come with risk. New talent requires experience. The common thread? Mistakes will be made. When you say “do it right the first time,” the inference is that failure is not acceptable under any circumstances—and that pretty much shuts down decision-making and learning.

(Yeah, sure, I know the way you mean it when you say, “do it right the first time” is that people should care about their work, not that they should avoid it. That’s nice. Problem is, no one cares about your intentions. There’s a reason that the road paved with intentions ends in a bad place, and it’s because, as I alluded to a moment ago, no one cares about your intentions. The inference people will make from your statement is that failure is fatal.)

“Do it right the first time?” Joke.

Take it away, girls:

Yea! It’s 2010! You know what that means? It means nobody’s infatuated with generational differences anymore, so we can actually get to the heart of the matter of what’s happening inside organizations.

Just kidding!

Who wants to learn anything?! We love our oversimplified stereotypes! Please, reduce all my organizational problems down to a few simple charts and astrology-style solutions!

But wait, maybe we can oversimplify things even further? Yes, I’m sure we can…

Here, I’ll go first:

(Ahem)

I believe all generational differences can be reduced down to a single value:
power. At work, power is really the only thing that matters. “Communication style?” No one gives a crap. “Team environment?” Pffft.

It’s all about… power.

Here’s what you need to know about the generations and power. Memorize this, and all your organizational problems will melt away. I promise.

Traditionalists

Reagan, Gorbie, Nelson Mandela, Bing Crosby, Teddy Roosevelt. Traditionalists are old. They lived a long time ago, before cell phones or horses.

This generations amasses power by taking ownership for the obvious. Their power comes from their ability to explain things as if no one but themselves has ever had an original thought in their lives, and to do this with a straight face.

Like when your grandfather says, “See that glowing orb out over the lake? That there’s called ‘the sun.’ And after the sun sets, it’s going to get dark, which is why it’s a good thing I thought to buy a car with headlights.”

Boomers

Think Dylan, Hendrix, Fleagle, and Abbie Hoffman, man. Boomers existed between 1967 and 1972.

Boomers’ power comes from willful ignorance and their willingness to charge for everything. “These chemicals I’m dumping in this pond cause cancer? C’mon. 400,000 showed up for a little concert on a dairy farm in ‘69 and that worked out; this will, too. Don’t worry about it. OK, look: I’ll clean up my mess. Here’s my bill.” Until the Beatles/Stones-Who-Is-Better war is settled, this generation is prohibited from leading anything other than campaigns for national bike helmet laws.

Yuppies

An oft-missed generation that includes Charlie Sheen (hair slicked, Gordon Gecko-style), Alex P. Keaton, and the Lehman brothers. These are people born between 19money and 19money-three.

Yuppies amass power by being a bunch of weasels. They caused both the crash of ‘87 and the Great Recession of right now. Your sucktastic life is all their fault. Screw ‘em.

Gen X

Kurt Cobain, Ferris Bueller, Bill S. Preston, Esquire. Gen X is the only fictional generation, born between the right frontal cortex and speech center of Douglas Coupland’s brain.

Xers get power from not caring. And from being able to work pop culture references into any situation. You can’t use the fact Mark Cuban is an ass hole against him when he accepts and embraces his glaring personality flaws; all you can do is build a flux capacitor that will let you go back in time and invent broadcast.com before he does.

Millennials

Represented by Miley Cirus. Technically she may be too young to represent this generation, but then again, NO ONE CARES.

Millennials’ power comes from the fact that they’re disposable. There’s just so many of them. And they swarm, like cicadas. This is a flash mob generation. They converge for the occasional election or no-pants subway ride and then disperse. Between swarms, they hibernate in Facebooks and do sexting to one another. You can see them by looking through the YouTubes.

Conclusion

And there you have it: all your worklife problems, solved.

You’re welcome!

I got very, very lucky in the dad department. I’ve always enjoyed his company. Still do. In honor of the man who gave me my start and continues to guide me to this day, here are some of the things I’ve learned from him—life lessons he’s taught me either directly through conversation, or indirectly through his actions.

• Life isn’t fair.
• When trusted with other people’s secrets, keep them.
• Always be doing something.
• Know your house, and how to fix it.
• Know your car, and how to park it.
• When driving, always leave yourself an “out” should one of the cars near you do something stupid.
• There is no such thing as “laughing too loud.”
• Death will take you regardless, so there’s no need to wait politely.
• Some people were put on this planet to irritate you. Get over it.
• It doesn’t hurt to ask.
• Know your body, and listen to it and respect its voice.
• Trying and failing? OK. Failing for lack of trying? Not OK.
• You only have one family. Find a reason to love them.
• No good deed goes unpunished. Do them anyway.
• You are allowed to do whatever you decide you are allowed to do.
• It’s OK to prioritize family above work.
• Grown ups can get as excited about Saturday morning cartoons as kids.
• Macaroni & cheese out of a box needs a few special ingredients to make it worthwhile.
• Give children more freedom than you think they can handle.
• How to install a sink, a toilet, a water filer, and a garbage disposal.
• How to buy clothes.
• You can always pull the power card later. Try being nice first.
• Don’t waste time going after your enemies. On the other hand, if you notice them caught out in the rain without an umbrella, don’t feel badly if you don’t rush to share yours.
• A successful marriage takes commitment.
• The money will somehow be there for you when you need it.
• Authority figures are still human beings, with human frailties. Approach with caution.
• Never expect people to be at their best, but never doubt them when they are.
• Shut up before you snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
• Eventually, you’ll get a reputation for something. Whatever it is, embrace it and use it.
• Don’t fight when you’re emotional. Fight only when it’s the best option
• Fight to win. When the fight is over, help the other guy back to his feet.
• If it’s important, repeat yourself often.
• Say “I love you” to those you love; don’t make them guess.
• The best way to punish someone for getting inappropriately drunk is to simply open their bedroom blinds early the next morning.
• Tell the truth.
• The world isn’t perfect, and that’s OK. It is what it is.
• Do the best you can do.

Who was has been that important mentor in your life? What life lessons have you learned?

How do some people always seem to know how to take control of a conversation? The answer is so obvious, it may surprise you: by going beyond what people say and paying attention to how they say it.

For instance, below are two common behaviors you might see in a conversation, including an overview of the impact of each, and what you should do that would be better. (For the rest of this series, see the links at the bottom of the page.)

#7
WHAT YOU SEE
A coworker waits so long to deliver important news that you hear it from others first. Then the person delivers her news as if she expects it will be the first time you’re hearing this information.

WHAT IT TELLS YOU
She doesn’t know how to prioritize. (You should have heard from her first!) Also, she doesn’t understand how information travels through informal channels.

HOW YOU USE IT
You let her get through her pitch, then give her a well-thought out response as if you were speaking off the cuff. She walks away wondering how you analyzed the situation so quickly, unaware that you had plenty of time to plan. She may also get in hot water with you if your delay made you look foolish for not knowing something you should’ve.

HOW YOU CAN AVOID THE TRAP YOURSELF
If it’s important, deliver the news right away, before the intended recipient hears it through the grapevine. Do this even if your delivery is unpracticed and raw.

#8
WHAT YOU SEE
In a meeting, a teammate looks at you and says, “I can’t do X unless you do Y.”

WHAT IT TELLS YOU
Your teammate can’t do X under any circumstances. (If you do Y for him, he’ll get stuck on Z.)

HOW YOU USE IT
Don’t do Y. Use your energy on having task X reassigned.

HOW YOU CAN AVOID THE TRAP YOURSELF
When facing a roadblock, say, “Sure, I can do X. Of course, to sustain it, Y needs to happen. Should I do Y, or should I rely on you to take care of it?”

Many people don’t realize that to the attentive listener, the decisions people make about how to communicate—for example, the words they use, the tone they take, the pauses they make before talking—all tell a story. Since actions speak louder than words, the story these decisions tell is often a more accurate indicator of what the speaker really means than the spoken word. (Not always, but often.) Pay attention to these subtle clues and you too will be able to take control of your conversations!

Jump to…
Tip #s 1 & 2
Tip #s 3 & 4
Tip #s 5 & 6
Tip #s 7 & 8 You are here!
Tip #s 9 & 10 (Coming Feb 10.)

What happens when personal branding goes too far? When it leaves others (aka “me”) with the impression that you think you’re MORE THAN AWESOME; YOU’RE A PIVOTAL PLAYER ON THE MOST PHENOMENAL, BESTEST, MOST PERFECTEST TEAM EVER CONCEIVED IN SOMEONE’S WHOLE BRAIN.

EVER.

That’s how I felt when I read Brill Street’s About Us page—I got that, “Yep, they’re the best… just ask them!” feeling inside.

Their CEO—not the company, mind you, just the CEO—is “redefining Gen Y’s role in the workplace.” Does that imply he’s doing it single-handedly? Does Lance Haun know about this? Where’s Penelope Trunk?

Their CTO, meanwhile, is a “brilliant critical thinker.” Awesome. “Brilliant” is very, very hard to come by.

And there’s their wunderkind Talent Manager, who makes me want to hang it all up and go fetal in the corner. Armed with a Bachelor’s in cognitive science, she “thoroughly understands the mind” and “has become an expert in the areas of Talent Acquisition, Career Coaching and Organizational Development.” Wow. If there’s one thing I’ve learned after 6 years of studying management at the world’s foremost business institutions, nearly 2 decades in and around entrepreneurs, executives, managers, recruiters, coaches, and OD professionals, and hours upon hours reading papers by guys like this and meeting guys like that, it’s that I could never master all three of those areas in my entire lifetime, even if I tried.

So clearly, I’m cooked.

Or maybe not.

Maybe the issue isn’t me at all. Maybe, Brill Street has taken personal branding too far, and has lost control of the ever-critical hyperbole-to-fact ratio. I don’t know.

What I do know is, individuals have different limits for the number of self-important adjective clauses they can tolerate at one time. Like my friends at Brill Street have done with me, I’ve done with others. With my bio, no less. Do yourself a favor: don’t follow in our footsteps. Here’s why:

1. Self-flattering hyperbole makes you sound like a douche. Factoid: No one wants to work with a douche. I have discovered, from personal experience, an inverse relationship between my sales close rate and the amount of puffery in my bio. Yeah, I’ll likely tighten it up later today, after you’ve had a chance to snicker at it.
2. It makes it hard to identify mistakes. When you call yourself brilliant, others are often slow to call you out on your mistakes—especially if they take you at your word and assume you know what you’re doing even when they have questions. So if you don’t catch it yourself, no one else will.
3. It makes it hard to correct mistakes. Once a mistake is identified, how does a super-smart person correct it? Now you might claim “We’re smart and we’re comfortable admitting when we’re wrong,” but then I’d say, “Truly brilliant people shouldn’t be wrong in the first place,” and I’d have a point.
4. It makes sales difficult. When you’re smart, you ask good questions. When you’re too smart, you make assumptions and jump to conclusions that stop you from getting to the heart of the matter.
5. Hyperbole can make it hard for me—focus group of 1 here—to take you seriously. 15 years turning start-ups into “market leaders”? What, you don’t trust me to know market leading companies by name?

Brill Street, I like your company. I’ve worked with your temps, and have sent you temps. I’ve even had lunch with your CEO. (I don’t think he liked me very much… though if I was wrong about that, I bet I’m not anymore!) At the end of the day, I want you to win. Your success would be good for you, good for the talent space, and good for Chicago, almost all of which is good for me, too.

Which is why I strongly encourage you to revisit your About page.

In fact, everyone reading this should go check their About page bios right now. (If you come across a winner, share it in the comments!)

Like I said before, my views come from my having been on the receiving end of this complaint myself. My life got better when I started to get in front of my ego, and I think yours will, too.

All my best!

Discrimination is ugly, damaging, and not dead yet. When Elle and I sat down to do a video this weekend, I was planning on guiding the conversation toward a discussion of “turning a weakness into a strength.” Instead, I got this:

(BTW, need help talking with your child about discrimination? This booklet has a lot of great information in it. The examples are relevant to where it’s written, but you can substitute just about any -ism and the concepts will still work.)

Now, more power to Elle for being able to blow this other girl off and recognize that there’s nothing Elle can do to change this girl’s behavior. That’s not easy for most people to do, and we could all learn a thing or two by watching this girl’s reaction to someone else’s small-mindedness.

I know adults like to think that the grown-up world is automatically more difficult than a child’s, and it can certainly seem that way, for instance if the discriminator is a boss, but I don’t want to underestimate the challenges of a kid’s universe. In the grown up world, the risks may be higher, but the options for resolution are greater, too. Grown-ups can quit a job, form new social circles, or protect a job through work quality. Kids don’t have these options. At school, there is no place to hide from discrimination when you’re the target end of it: you can’t quit, you can’t make different friends (at least not easily), and the discriminator doesn’t care about your talents. That lunch hour can be a looooonnnnggg time when someone has you in his/her sights and you find yourself with no place to hide.

But you know what’s really dangerous—when the grown-up world truly is a more explosive place than a child’s?

It’s when grown-ups take their world, with all the safety valves and options that are buried in its complexity, and reduce it all down to the simplicity of a elementary school lunch room. When grown ups do that, they don’t eliminate their judgments, they don’t eliminate their ability to cause pain, they don’t even eliminate their desire to judge or cause pain. Usually, when gets lost in the reduction are the opportunities for working through those judgments in any sort of healthy way. That’s dangerous.

Despite the dangers, we see this behavior in the world around us with far too much frequency. Look at the politics of the Teapartistas, for instance: by simplifying Obama to a caricature of a socialist, they actually create discrimination: Obama could wake up tomorrow, shut down health care reform, and they’d still have to hate him. Not because of what he does, but because of who he is. Judging people because of who they are as opposed to what they do is incredibly dangerous; people are notoriously poor judges of character. So be careful, America. Ideologues are bad, but ideologues whose power is based on discrimination are worse. Let’s not be in such a hurry to take Obama down that we give rise to a second McCarthy.

It takes a pretty strong soul to avoid discrimination. It takes an even stronger soul to remain open to reconciling with one who has shown discrimination.

Interestingly, when I look for role models in this area, I find mostly children. Remember Tiny Tim’s famous line in A Christmas Carol? “God bless us, every one,” he says. There he is, blessing Scrooge, the man who’s stinginess has kept him small and weak and sick his whole life. That’s the moment we discover the incredible strength of this kid’s soul, and it’s beautiful.

And in Willy Wonka, it’s Charlie who turns his back on the Wonka’s meanness—even after Grandpa Joe decides to sell out to Slugworth.

(You’re in good company, Elle.)

But here’s the thing: as much as I love my daughter, and am genuinely proud of her, I just don’t believe that you—a grown up—are not better than a seven year old.

So tell me… how do you rise above?

Maybe you read this week about Toyota’s problems? And its recall of over 5 million vehicles? And how they have stopped selling certain cars until they fix the accelerator problem that may turn these vehicles into bullet trains?

You must’ve. Heck, there is a good chance that you or someone you know is impacted by the recall.

I love this line from the WSJ’s article:

On Nov. 4, the [NHTSA] issued an unusual rebuke of Toyota, saying the company released misleading information about a plan to recall some 3.8 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles…

Apparently, Toyota hasn’t been keeping up with the latest biz fads to roll out of social media, specifically with regards to authenticity and transparency.

Seems that instead, Toyota is kicking it old school.

FAIL.

When you build your reputation around one thing, then you protect that one thing. You do not play games with your reputation in the area where you need to be squeaky cleanest. For instance, if we were to take, I dunno, say… TOYOTA, and look at what Toyota built its reputation on, I think we’d find near consensus that the company’s reputation has been build around quality. Toyota is studied by manufacturing plants the world over who want to emulate the firm’s capacity for creating ongoing improvements in both process and product. You know, that whole “relentless pursuit of perfection” thing they talked about for ten plus years, before going beyond even that.

As suggested by the Wall Street Journal, Toyota seems to have forgotten that reputations must be earned. When called out on a potential problem by regulators, instead of addressing it immediately, Toyota got a little prickly and said, basically, “Step off! Don’t you know who we are?!”

Sounds like some company fell in love with its own marketing.

The lesson here is this: if there’s something you do better than anything else, protect that. And by all means, if you ever receive feedback, like Toyota did, that you are having problems in your core area, embrace the feedback! Just because it’s your best quality doesn’t mean it’s objectively great all the time. Be humble, listen, and act.

There is no need for Toyota to have failed here. Especially if they heard about this issue in early November of last year. For Pete’s sake, they sat on a potentially life-threatening quality problem for 2.5 months?!

Were they waiting for the magic reputation fairy to make the problem go away?

*

(I’m not exactly impartial here. I’m rooting for the home team. So let me close the issue of Toyota with this: Go get ‘em home team! And you, too, other home team! Go, America… go!)

*

Final thought: FAIL hat tip to this half-baked article that (1) can’t figure out if it’s news or op/ed, (2) makes a ham-fisted attempt to equate two very different recalls (Toyota and Tylenol), and (3) pulls the rip cord on itself in the middle of a thought.

At least that last problem mercifully brought the “article” to a close.

How do some people always seem to know how to take control of a conversation? The answer is so obvious, it may surprise you: by going beyond what people say and paying attention to how they say it.

For instance, below are two common behaviors you might see in a conversation, including an overview of the impact of each, and what you should do that would be better. (For the rest of this series, see the links at the bottom of the page.)

#5
WHAT YOU SEE
A person starts a conversation by asking you a bunch of, “So you agree that this is true, right?” questions.

WHAT IT TELLS YOU
You’re being led to a conclusion. This person on the phone wants to sell you on an idea. This is going to cost you money.

HOW YOU USE IT
Look at the person—what s/he does, the quality of his/her work, who his/her boss is, what your relationship is… and his/her gender, age, personal interests, education, etc.—and take a walk in his or her shoes. Ask yourself, “What do I have that this person needs?” Think critically about the request being made. Mentally prepare to say “No.”

HOW YOU CAN AVOID THE TRAP YOURSELF
Make the request up front, without a long lead-in. If you don’t get the answer you want, ask why. Better to save your questions and use them to challenge my thinking than to waste them all upfront.

#6
WHAT YOU SEE
A subordinate or consultant puts a thick presentation in front of you and asks you not to read ahead.

WHAT IT TELLS YOU
Someone thinks you’re an idiot who will jump to conclusions unless you are fed brilliant information in tiny spoonfuls.

HOW YOU USE IT
You skip to the conclusions and start asking questions that matter to you. You know a lot from the fact that conclusion is buried, including this: left to his own devices, the presenter chose to display his analytic skills rather than his decision-making skills. This is not an executive thinker you’re dealing with. This is someone who would prefer to talk about decisions than make them. You reassign the project to a doer.

HOW YOU CAN AVOID THE TRAP YOURSELF
When presenting, create a three page deck with the premise, the question, and the conclusion (with key numbers) up front… and then build a big, fat appendix with all all your supporting detail that may or may be needed.

Many people don’t realize that to the attentive listener, the decisions people make about how to communicate—for example, the words they use, the tone they take, the pauses they make before talking—all tell a story. Since actions speak louder than words, the story these decisions tell is often a more accurate indicator of what the speaker really means than the spoken word. (Not always, but often.) Pay attention to these subtle clues and you too will be able to take control of your conversations!

Jump to…
Tip #s 1 & 2
Tip #s 3 & 4
Tip #s 5 & 6 You are here!
Tip #s 7 & 8
Tip #s 9 & 10 (Coming Feb 10.)

Life’s never fair; sometimes, the injustice is outrageous.

I spent yesterday afternoon at a funeral for a 34 year old girl. Who had done everything right. Who had shown the right attitude, the right ethic, and the right approach to life. Who was welcoming, warm, and loving. Who supported friends and advocated for the good guys. Who left people with a smile… and who, in these regards, was just like everyone else in her family, because for as long as I’ve known them, they’ve each been able to be described in these terms.

There were no family feuds, no dark secrets, no embezzled funds, no unspoken resentments. None of that. Nothing to adulterate the family’s grief, or dull the pain of their loss. Her passing solves no small problem nor releases anyone from some small burden.

Like many, many others in the community, there is a piece within me that was shattered by the news. Flat out shattered. People like her don’t die young. Parents like hers don’t lose children. They just… don’t.

I learned of her passing the same day I posted this. Please—if you haven’t yet, do what I suggest in that post and call someone you haven’t spoken to in awhile. Do something nice for someone—not to get credit, but just to do it. Even if it’s as small as letting someone merge in front of you in traffic, or holding a door open, or buying the person behind you in line lunch randomly.

Whatever it is, do it.

If you can’t find the energy to do it for yourself, then do it for me. Because I’m watching my friend mourn the loss of his sister, and there is nothing I can do for him to bring her back. I can’t fix his problem, and it hurts to watch someone in pain and not to be able to help. It would make me feel better to know that you are out there, doing something to help another.

I’m not talking about a financial donation, by the way—I’m talking about doing something.

Life is too short, and too unfair, to take it for granted. Please, get out there…

and do.

Let me tell you a story. A good story.

I was at Northwestern Memorial Hospital last week. Not exactly the place I wanted to be, especially since I was visiting my dad who had just had a surgery I hoped he’d never need. (He’s doing fine.)

I’m standing by the elevator. The elevators there put me in a good mood. Maybe it’s the voice. Maybe it’s that they’re fast. Maybe it’s the company.

At this moment, it’s the company. The guy with me—middle aged and badged, so definitely an employee—is interested in my day. Not creepy, just interested. So we have a pleasant conversation for 60 seconds. When he steps off, I asked him what exactly he does.

“I run IT.”

We wave at each other, the doors close, and I ride up to my father’s floor.

Then I ride down to the executive administration office, verify that he’s an exec, and smile because this guy isn’t waiting for customer satisfaction surveys or sending out underlings to find out what’s the what. He’s doing his own homework every time he steps out of his office.

Folks, that’s how it’s done. I don’t know anything about this guy, save this: his style is the future of management.

Which brings me to the point of today’s post: managers who think their crappola smells like roses? Maybe you know one of them?

They’re bullshit… and their days are numbered.

If you’ve got an exec at your company who refuses to get his fingernails dirty, note well: the days when you can pretend “I’m a manager = I’m better than you” are fast coming to an end.

Management is a function, not a privilege. Managers who don’t figure that out quickly will not long survive. Especially in a world of project workers, temporary assignments, and ad hoc work groups, managers who pull that holier-than-thou crap are going be quickly exposed by teams that simply outwait them. Managers who rack up two or three consecutive failed assignments will have some ’splainin’ to do.

And bags to pack.

“But what if I’m a holier-than-thou manager?”

If you read the story above about the IT dude at NMH and scoffed, here are your choices:

1. Take the money and run. Good riddance.
2. Change your outlook. Getting on the right side of things today will save you grief down the road.
3. Do nothing. But don’t come crying to me when your world starts falling apart… which is going to happen sooner than you hope.

Holier-than-thou manager, you’re full of shit… and we’re onto you.