Rap Lyrics That Didn’t Shape My Leadership Style

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For the background of this list – see my original post from 2-10-12.

But that I like…

As I put together the 25 Rap Lyrics That Shaped My Leadership Style, I kept coming up with a number of lyrics that I liked, but didn’t really fit into the “Leadership” category.  So, before I give you the #1 Rap Lyric That Shaped My Leadership Style – I’m going to give you some of my favorite Rap Lyrics of all time – even if they didn’t shape my leadership style! Check them out:

“I’ve got 99 problems, but a B–ch ain’t one.” Jay-Z (99Problems)

“Pay us like you owe us for all the years that you hold us
We can talk, but money talks so talk mo’ bucks” Jay-Z (Izzo H.O.V.A.)

“I had a dream I could buy my way to heaven/ When I awoke, I spent that on a necklace.”  Kanye West (Can’t Tell Me Nothing)

“Every bag, every blouse, every bracelet
Comes with a price tag, baby, face it
You should leave if you can’t accept the basics
Plenty hoes in the baller-nigga’s matrix”  Pusha T (from Kanye’s Runaway)

“When I talk about money all you see is the struggle/ When I tell you I’m livin’ large, you tell me it’s trouble.” Tupac (I Ain’t Mad Atcha)

“Out on bail fresh, outta jail, California dreamin’/ Soon as I stepped on the scene, I’m hearin’ hoochies screamin’.” Tupac (California Love)

“Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis
When I was dead broke, man I couldn’t picture this
50 inch screen, money green leather sofa
Got two rides, a limousine with a chauffeur” Notorious B.I.G. (Juicy)

“Throw dirt on me and grow a wildflower But it’s fuck the world, get a child out her Yeah, my life a bitch, but you know nothing ’bout her Been to hell and back, I can show you vouchers” Lil Wayne (No Love)

“Cause I am, whatever you say I am
If I wasn’t, then why would I say I am?
In the paper, the news everyday I am
I don’t know it’s just the way I am” Eminem (The Way I Am)

“Man they treat me like a legend, am I really this cold?/ I’m really too young to be feeling this old.” Drake (Over)

“On the oak tree, I hope we feel like this forever
Forever, forever, ever, forever, ever?
Forever never seems that long until you’re grown” Outkast (Ms. Jackson)

“Two lil’ kids with a flow you ain’t ever heard
And none faking you can understand every word
As you listen to my cool, smooth melody
The Daddy makes you J-U-M-P”  Kriss Kross (Jump)

“This is another public service announcement
You can believe it, or you can doubt it” BDP (Beef)

“But that’s okay ’cause I Wait for my cue and just listen play my position like A short stop, pick up everything mommy hittin'” Nelly (Delima)

“Now Peter Piper picked peppers but Run rocked rhymes
Humpty Dumpty fell down that’s his hard time” Run DMC (Peter Piper)

“My Adidas
standin on 2 Fifth St.
funky fresh and yes cold on my feet
with no shoe string in em, I did not win em
I bought em off the Ave with the tags still in em” Run DMC (My Addidas)

“I told em all – all them little gangstas Who you think helped mold ’em all? Now you wanna run around talkin bout guns like I ain’t got none What you think I sold ’em all?” Dr. Dre (Forgot About Dre)

“Never let me slip, ’cause if I slip, then I’m slippin’
But if I got my Nina, then you know I’m straight trippin'” Dr. Dre (Nuthin But A G Thang)

“Sixteen in the clip and one in the hole
Nate Dogg is about to make some bodies turn cold” Warren G & Nate Dogg (Regulate)

Ok, I’ve got to stop, I could turn this into a 10,000 word dissertation! Hit me in the comments with your favorite Rap Lyrics.

Great HR Doesn’t Come from Big HR Shops

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We here it all the time:

“They’ve got to much to lose to take that kind of a risk.”

Or statements similar to this.

As I travel out and about on the fall HR conference tour (most State level SHRM conferences happen in the fall) I’m reminded constantly that Big HR Shops (Fortune 500 companies, Big Government, Giant Non-Profits, etc.) are not who you should be turning to for the next great HR ideas.  Maybe you can turn to them for Best Practices – but is best practice – where you want to be?  Best Practice is by it’s nature – solid and fully vetted – for years.  It’s great HR from 5+ years ago. Safe. You can’t go wrong with Best Practice HR.  But please stop trying to act like it’s “great” HR – it’s not  – it’s more of the same HR.

There’s actually a name for this, it’s called Loss Aversion theory, which is basically:

“people’s tendency to strongly prefer avoiding losses to acquiring gains. Some studies suggest that losses are twice as powerful, psychologically, as gains.”

What this all boils down to in HR is what you have to lose by taking a chance.  Want a industry changing benefit program?  You have to get way out of the box.  Big HR Shops don’t get way out of the box.  By the way – Google is a big HR shop – Giant.  So are most of the other companies you continue to use as examples of “Great” HR, but they really aren’t “great” HR.  I say this because I’m tired to hearing “more of the same HR” practices at conferences being played off as “Great HR” practices, and seeing my HR peers buy it as life altering HR. It’s not – unless you have a Delorean that can’t go back in time to when it was.

So you want Great HR, you want HR that will change industries in 5 years? Don’t get caught up with a brand – get caught up with an idea.  Too often we want the “brand” – “Oh, look Southwest Airlines HR is going to be talking – I MUST go see them!”  Stop!  Southwest was great 20 years ago – they aren’t anymore – they are the same now – which is still good – but not “Great”.  You don’t want to be like Southwest Airlines right now – you want to be like Southwest Airlines 20 years ago.  You’re goal is to find that session with that person you’ve never heard of – they have nothing to lose – they will probably have better ideas.

I’m probably on an island with this one.  Because everyone wants to hear about how the “Big Boys” are doing it – because if they are doing “it”, “it “must be good.  But you know I’m comfortable on this island – this island is full of start-ups you’ve never heard of and they are fighting to make it ever day and that fight propels them into a space the “Big Boys” won’t go.  This island has a bunch of creative HR pros who don’t have books published and aren’t paid to speak  – they get their hands dirty, they make mistakes – they – make – great HR.

3 Steps To Getting Stuff Done

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There are times when I struggle to get things done.  I’m a really good starter of things – I love starting things.  I can always see how I want it finished (a little shout out to Covey – Begin with the end in mind).  But like most things you start, eventually things get bogged down, and getting them over the finish line can be hard.  It’s probably why most projects fail, it gets tough, so we stop and move onto the beginning of something else – because that’s fun and exciting.  I’ve learned this about myself over the years and I do two things to help myself. First – I surround myself with people who have great resolve to getting things done, the type of folks who don’t sleep well at night because they know there was that one glass left in the sink, and they should really get up and put in away.  I love those folks – they aren’t me – I hire them ever time I get the chance.  I even married one of those types – she makes me better!  Second – I force myself to not start something new, until I finish what I’ve already started.  This can be annoying, I’m sure, for those around me because sometimes projects have to go on hold – while you wait for feedback, or other resources, etc.  This makes me antsy – I like to get things finished!

I was re-introduced recently to a quote from the novel Alice in Wonderland that I think really puts in perspective what it takes to get something done.  The quote is from the King of Hearts and it is quite simply:

“Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”

Your 3 Steps:

1. Begin

2. Go till the end

3. Stop

We make it much harder than that – but it really isn’t.  I like simple stuff – it fits into my mind quite well.  It might be the best advice I’ve gotten in a really long time.  I don’t need pre-planning, or post project assessments, or update meetings, or budget reviews, etc.

Naive?  Probably.  But, sometimes you just need to Begin, go to you come to the end: then stop.

 

#2 Rap Lyric That Shaped My Leadership Style

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For the background of this list – see my original post from 2-10-12.

The #2 Rap Lyric that Shaped my Leadership Style comes from rapper Ice Cube, from his 1993 Predator album, and the song “It Was a Good Day“. The song was ranked #7 all time by VH1 for hip hop songs and had a great video! The Lyric:

“Today I didn’t even have to use my A.K.
I got to say it was a good day.”

In HR we carry a gun with us all the time – don’t kid yourself – your gun is your ability to influence hiring managers and supervisors to terminate an individual in your organization based on the policies and practices that most HR Pros know inside and out.  Leadership in your organization look to HR Pros to help them “do the right thing” for the organization when it comes to terminations and/or discipline.  That is a big, giant gun you are carry around – and it’s heavy!

I’ve had to terminate hundreds of employees in my HR career – and I’ve never once felt good about it.  Some certainly deserved it – without question – but I’ve never once hired someone to fire them.  I hired them to be a great employee – so to have to fire them is a sad event.  It means I/we/us failed – maybe part of that equation was a larger piece of the problem – but don’t kid yourself – 99% of the time it’s a team failure. I really spend a great deal of time self-reflecting when I have to terminate an employee and to determine where I failed them – how could I have saved them – where did it all go wrong.  This is very important – because we only get better if we can keep and grow our teams.

Each and everyday, in my HR career, that I have not had to use my “AK” – I can definitely say was a good day!

10 Reasons HR Thinks Employees Are Crazy

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I don’t know of one HR Pro I’ve ever met who didn’t say, behind closed doors, “My employees are Crazy!”   It’s like school teachers when they go into that mysterious “Teachers Lounge”, once the door is closed and they are all in there with the other teachers – didn’t you want to know what the heck they talked about!?!?  I can tell you  – before I was in HR – I was a teacher.  Guess what?  Teachers talk about the exact same things that HR Pros talk about – how crazy the kids/employees are that we have to deal with all day!  No difference – just physical age (certainly not mental age!).

So, I wanted to come up some of the reasons we think our employees are crazy – to hep out those crazy employees who want to come off less crazy at their next interview.  It can happen! I don’t think employees are crazy, all the time, just at certain times – the problem is, HR Pros have to deal with all the employees so there is a good chance a crazy one is going to come across your desk at least once a day – thus the reason HR Pros think all of their employees are Crazy.  We deal with crazy every day!

Here’s why HR Pros think Employees are Crazy:

1. Your Boss tells us about all of your weird anxieties.

2. Your co-workers, that hate you, tell us about all of your weird anxieties.

3. We know your medical history – mental and physical – sorry, it’s part of the gig.

4.  We find out every time you cry or lose it at work – every time – almost part of the gig.

5. Your crazy-ass emails find their way to our inbox – thank your “work” friends for that.

6.  We spend too much time talking about you in succession planning meetings, uncovering all that is wrong with you.

7.  You rate yourself as “Great” on your self-assessments, and we know you are barely “Average”.

8.  I know more about your divorce then your divorce attorney.

9.  Your stories about your kids haunt me at night.

10.  I know everyone you’ve slept with in the office – or tried to sleep with – or want to sleep with.

It’s a function of the job – we see and hear the worst and the best of all of our employees.  Just like the school teacher who spends more time on a daily basis with your kids than you do as a parent,  that teacher is probably going to know some things about them that you are unwilling to accept.   HR Pros know some things about our employees – many of which they aren’t willing to accept – that’s human nature.  I’m only saying this so that you understand why we think you’re crazy – you are – you just can’t accept that you are!

Recruiting’s 2032 Nightmare

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According to a recent USA Today article the U.S. birthrate is in sharp decline and is at it’s lowest levels in the past 25 years.   Here’s probably a few facts you don’t know:

– Projected 2013 birthrate in the U.S. is estimated to be 1.86

– Birthrate needed to maintain a population over a 20 year period is 2.1

Why should this concern you?

There are a number of reason – one might be that you need as many young people as old for the simple fact of having enough young people to take care of your older population.  If you turn that equation upside down (Taiwan 1.1 or Portugal 1.3) you have a society full of older people and not enough young people to fill the jobs needed to keep running your society.  The U.S. already has 3 Million jobs left unfilled because of lack of skilled employees – today. Imagine if you now have millions of less workers to even choose from – and by the way – skilled workers aren’t coming from other countries because their societies are growing and need them.  That is what our country’s employment picture will look like in 2032.  I know for many people right now this sounds very good – because of our high unemployment – but this will be a HR/Recruiting nightmare for those young HR/Talent Pros starting out their careers in the next 20 years.

Being the Futurist that I am -I’ve already provided a solution to this problem back in 2011 over at Fistful of Talent- Should You Encourage Your Employees To Have Babies – check it out. Basically my advice remains the same – as U.S. employers we need to create a positive, encouraging environment for our employees, with family-friendly policies that make our employees feel like starting a family is a good thing, and that if they do start a family their job and ability to get a promotion won’t be compromised.  This is not the case as many U.S. employers right now – for both men and women in the workforce.

As HR Pros and organizations we tend to think this isn’t our issue.  It will take care of itself – but as we look at countries with low birthrates, the issue doesn’t take care of itself and those countries have a worker crisis going on right now.    We need to change our ways right now – we need to be family friendly employers – we need to, as HR Pros, be concerned and find solutions for our employees around daycare, flexible schedules and other practices that will help our employees with families.   I know it sounds a bit the-sky-is-fallingish, but the numbers don’t lie we are headed for some of the hardest hiring this country has ever seen.

One solution I’ve thought of, that I didn’t bring up in 2011, is baby sign-on bonuses!  We do it for college students – I think we start doing for babies of our best employees.  I mean if parents can arrange their kids marriage, what stops us from arranging their first job?  Nothing! That’s what.  Imagine how happy your employees would be to cash a $20,000 check to help with baby expenses for the simple task of forcing their kid to come to work with your company upon college graduation.  It seems so simple – I’m not quite sure why no one has started this yet!

#3 Lyric That Shaped My Leadership Style

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For the background of this list – see my original post from 2-10-12.

The #3 Lyric That Shaped My Leadership Style comes from Nelly and his 2001 song “#1” off the soundtrack from the movie Training Day.  Here’s the Lyric:

“What does it take to be number one?
Two is not a winner and three nobody remembers”

It seems cocky doesn’t it?  But let me ask you this question: Why do you go to work?  I think there is probably a number of answers to that question: “I have to”; “I love what I do”; “I love the company”; etc.  I’m a scoreboard guy – I love to win.  I come to work each day to win.  I want my team to win – I want people on my team you want to win.  I hear you – “Well, what the hell are you winning in HR?!?!”

That’s a good question.  No matter what organization I have been with – retail, casual dining, health care, recruiting – I wanted to beat our competition at every level.  When I show up in the morning until I leave at night – I want to beat my competition.  When I go into designing a new employment branding project, or designing a new compensation model, or creating a recruiting strategy it all starts with one mindset – how is this going to make my organization stronger, and how is it going to make my competition weaker.  My competition is always top of mind.

Back in the 90’s there was a sportswear company called No Fear who mostly became popular for printing t shirts with funny motivational sayings like: “He who dies with the most toys, still dies” or “I’ve never lost, I’ve just been a little bit behind when the time ran out“, but my favorite was always “2nd Place is the 1st Loser”.  In a nutshell that sums up my feelings – I play and work to be #1 and try and surround myself with others that have that same winning desire – it’s natural 5 hour energy that doesn’t stop at 5 hours!

58% of College Students Are Willing to Lie

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According to a recent study by NetImpact – What Workers Want in 2012 58% of College Students (1,726 total in the study) would take a 15% pay cut to work for an organization who’s values matched their own.  In another study, I’m willing to coach the Los Angles Lakers for less than half what they are paying their current coach (1 total in this study)!

These studies are silly – it’s hypothetical, college kids still believe in things – like fairness and equal opportunity and you’ll always be able to drink 12 beers and get up the next morning and run 3 miles.  Let’s wait for all 1,726 college students who took the study to get a job and then 5 years from now when they are employed we’ll go to them and force them to make a choice –

1. You keep your current salary and stay with your current job

2. You take a 15% pay cut and move to Employer A which happens to have the same values as you, under the current leadership team

I will bet my entire life savings that less than 58% of those people would choose to leave their current employers (no matter what job they have) and take a 15% pay cut!  In fact I would be fairly confident to say only about 10% would take us up on our offer, and they were already looking or getting pushed out. So, what does the study really say? That college students being asked silly hypothetical questions for a study about how they will act in the future, are willing to lie.

Why do I think these studies are silly?  Because solid, well meaning, HR Pros will go out and start recruiting folks to their organization who have the same values that “they” have.  “They” being the key word.  Who is “they”?  Well, Tim, we went to our leadership and our managers and our employees and we did value assessment and we found that 73% of our folks valued honesty and integrity over 67% that valued hard work and a fun work place.  Oh, you’ve got it figured out…

Here’s what I’m thinking – values are hard to hire – but you think they aren’t.  I can hire for skills, I can hire for past performance, etc. When it comes to values and morals, I’m really throwing myself down the rabbit hole.  Hiring for values and morals puts the selectors values and morals into play way too much.  If Peggy is your main screener – you better damn hope Peggy shares the exact values and morals you’re trying to hire for – or you’re going to be in for a surprise down the road.

I’m not saying don’t do it – I’m saying you better weight it appropriately with some other criteria.  I seem to be in the minority who still believes having the fire power to do the job, and some past performance to back it up, is still fairly important when selecting candidates. And if Humility doesn’t seem to be a part of their value chain, I think I might be able to work around that – if they can perform!

3 Reasons Good Recruiters are Good at Recruiting

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I was reminded this past week that recruiting is very hard.  No, it’s not hard to post a job on your careers page and wait for a resume, that you won’t screen, and just pass along to the hiring manager -that’s not hard.  Recruiting is hard – when it comes down to finding talent that really doesn’t want to be found and has no desire to go to work for your bad culture and crappy manager who turns over people constantly – that’s when recruiting is hard!

I think there are 3 main differences that separate good recruiting from bad recruiting.  They are:

1. Good recruiters have the ability to change your mind about an opportunity, before money is even discussed.  Bad recruiters lead with the money.  Good recruiters believe in their organizations, believe in the position, and believe in the hiring manager as a great leader.  Then they make you a believer!

2. Good recruiters know your rejections before you know them and address them as such.   Relocation is probably the toughest one that comes to mind – next to relocation and a spouse who doesn’t want to relocate (that’s like Kryptonite to a Recruiter!).  Getting someone to relocate for a new position, new company – when they are a great talent with a great organization – takes a recruiter with an exceptional ability to connect the dots for the candidates.  This becomes the – this is why you need to be here, right now kind of moment that great recruiters come up with instead of just hanging up the phone and calling someone else.

3. Good recruiters know how to dig, and love to get dirty.  Let’s face it, you mining the Monster database isn’t recruiting – I can easily find a $10/hr admin type who can do that and they’ll actually be more engaged doing it!  Good recruiters love the search – yeah, it can be frustrating and heartbreaking, but when you uncover that hidden gem – it very much is worth the work!

The last four or five years have given us an environment where newer recruiters just coming into the industry, didn’t have to be good – they had to be present.  Being present isn’t a qualification, necessarily, to becoming a good recruiter.  High unemployment and low jobs, gives you an abundance to candidates and usually qualified candidates as well.  This doesn’t make you a good recruiter – it makes you a good screener.  In many industries we are now seeing the value of good recruiters come back, as certain job markets are opening up in a big way and candidates, even bad ones, are no longer advertising themselves as available.

Good recruiting is invaluable to a good HR shop – and bad recruiting is the quickest way for your HR shop to lose credibility with your leadership. So, what can you do?  Don’t allow bad recruiting to live in your barn! Good Recruiting is hard, and it shouldn’t look easy and it doesn’t work 40 hours per week, 8 to 5 pm, Monday thru Friday.  But, bad recruiting is betting on the fact that you don’t know the difference, or you are to lazy to do anything about it.

Can You Hear Facebook coming LinkedIn?

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This is old news but – last week Facebook announced that Facebook Jobs is coming! You can almost hear the Jaws theme music playing in the background, can’t you!?  CareerBuilder, Dice, LinkedIn, etc. – all the job boards – you can bet are taking note.  900 Million users – everyone from your Grandma to your Mom to your cousin Mary – from Brain Surgeons to Alligator Wrestlers – Facebook has got them.

My good friend Lance Haun wrote about his over at TLNT last week – What Is Facebook Thinking? Do We Really Need Another Job Board? From Lance’s post:

“The strength is obvious: imagine you’re applying for a job at XYZ company and you find out that a friend’s family member works there. Or what if some sort of robust search capability were added to the site? Or what if Facebook could recommend certain career options based on your activity beyond career-related postings?

The problem is that it would also come at the expense of privacy and the sort of digital wall that many people have put up to differentiate between their Facebook life and their LinkedIn life. Yet, the sheer numbers potential is attractive in it’s own right.”

This is the argument that LinkedIn has been hoping you will buy!  And so far you have been! LinkedIn is for Professional, Facebook is for Personal.  It’s a 2008 argument.  Most people don’t want to live two lives – they would prefer to live one, but they feel they can’t be themselves professionally – they need to be this watered down version of themselves – at least when not at a conference – then anything goes.  Let’s get real for a second – everyone is on Facebook – Your Mom, Your co-workers, Your boss, the owner of your company, your HR Manager, your ex-boyfriends, your current boyfriend – everyone.  Your not hiding anything – even with your ‘privacy’ settings.  It’s time to stop living the double life and be yourself.

Here’s what is really exciting about Facebook Jobs – We finally get access to everyone!  Well, almost everyone – at least 7 times more than LinkedIn – and all those ‘Passive’ candidates!  Even if Facebook only goes for the quick cash grab and does postings for a fee – it’s still better than just posting on a Job Board or LinkedIn.  People like to look, lurk and see what’s open – it’s human nature.  Facebook is the perfect place for this.  Just like when LinkedIn started and HR Pros were actually encouraging their employees to get on, to ‘network’ (don’t we look stupid now!) – no one will consider a person on Facebook to necessarily be job hunting.  It’s the perfect safe environment for this to happen.  Plus, it easily allows people to engage their personal networks when they see something interesting that someone in their personal network would have interest in.

LinkedIn should be nervous – good talent is already leaving or ignoring them at this point – recruiters have taken it over – it’s become spammy.  Facebook is an open frontier – the best recruiters are already finding ways within Facebook to network and source.  Facebook Jobs – or whatever they decide to do – could be a big game changer for recruiters.