#19 Rap Lyric That Shaped My Leadership Style

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Tim Sackett

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

The #19 Rap Lyric That Shaped My Leadership Style comes from Ice T’s song New Jack Hustler from the New Jack City movie soundtrack – classic early 90’s movie by the way, with a great part played by an up-and-coming comedian Chris Rock as Pookie. (Editorial comment – isn’t this entire thing an editorial comment? – If you haven’t checked out Ice Loves Coco on E on Sunday nights – you’re missing the best TV ever! To go from Gagnsta Rapper to Law & Order actor to Ice Loves Coco is a trip beyond imagination!) Ok, here’s the lyric:

“I had nothing and I wanted it; you had everything and you flaunted it…”

I think you can break down most people into two groups: the haves and the have nots. I tend to live my life like a “have not” – which means I push to become a “have”. How does this shape my leadership style? I’m rarely satisfied. I always think I can do better, or do more. The “haves” in the world tend to sit back and become soft – they don’t push as hard any more, they don’t work as hard anymore – they have it. The “have nots” are the exact opposite.

Many that know me would probably say – well, wait a minute – you’re a “have” – great job, great family, etc. – who are you kidding – you’re a “have”! But that’s the real difference – I don’t consider myself a “have” – and I don’t act like a “have” – from a leadership standpoint that means I don’t allow my team to act like “haves”. I’ll blame my mother for this – as Prince said “She’s never satisfied” and neither am I. This can be a difficult leadership trait to have – most people don’t like working for someone who isn’t satisfied easy. Knowing this I work extra hard to surround myself with high potential folks who score off the chart on Results Orientation. I want people on my team – who want it more than I want it! We go to work – every day – we bring it.

I love coming to work for that simple fact – these folks – my team – bring it! They work like they have nothing – and they want it!

It’s Back! FOT’s Top 25 HR/Recruiting Blogs!

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Tim Sackett

Fistful of Talent – which I’m proud to be a member of – is releasing it’s Top 25 HR and Recruiting Blogs. What’s really cool about this list – unlike some other lists I have poetically mentioned in prior posts – is this isn’t made up by some random analysis, of random metrics – this thing is totally un-apologetically 100% subjective! That’s right, we (the FOT Tribe) sent in our own Top 25 HR and Recruiting Blogs that we love to read -the blogs we are fans of – and we ranked them 1 to 25. Simple – yet very effective!

I’m not saying that it’s easy to pick the Top 25 – for starters no FOTer blog can be a part of our list – which right there eliminates probably the 10 greatest blogs on the planet! So, I might have to recommend to Kris that next year we call the list – The Top 11-35 HR and Recruiting Blogs! That being said we looked at hundreds of blogs – many of us have our personal favorites – many of us really like and read blogs that our out of the HR world – as our personal favorites. What I can tell you – is the Top 25 – are solid! If you are looking for a list of HR and Recruiting blogs to follow – you won’t go wrong with any of these!

FOT’s own Steve Boese will be doing his thing tonight at the HR Happy Hour – unveiling the winners and talking HR with some of the top HR bloggers in the business – go check him out –

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/steve-boese/2012/03/23/hr-happy-hour-141–the-hr-blog-power-rankings

HR Happy Hour Episode 141 – ‘The HR Blog Power Rankings’

Losing Your Job – Tebow Style!

Posted on March 21, 2012 by Tim Sackett

By now most of the free world knows that Peyton Manning accepted the quarterback position with the Denver Broncos who already had a quarterback in Tim Tebow. Ouch.To be honest it was really the only way that the Denver Broncos were going to get out of this Tebow mess. I like the kid, but he isn’t one of the better NFL quarterbacks, and he certainly wasn’t going to take them to the Super Bowl. Now they have a Hall of Fame caliber quarterback in Manning – who, if he fails, will have at least accomplished one thing for the Broncos – he got rid of Tebow without the fans losing their minds! Tebow is a fan favorite, which is like saying, fat kids slightly like cake – Bronco fans, heck, NFL fans in general, lost their minds about Tebow run last season. Getting rid of him wasn’t an option for the organization – until something so good came along it made everyone forget how much they loved Tebow.

You see great Talent has a way of doing that – making you forget about your favorites. Do you have a Tebow in your organization? I bet you do – and you know if you tried to get rid of them, your employees would lose their minds, culturally it would be bad, productively it would be bad, moral-wise it would be bad. So, you don’t do it – even if the person really isn’t holding up their end of the bargain any longer.

So, what do you do?

You do what Elway did with the Broncos – you bring in better talent and cut bait with your employee favorite! You have to do this. You have no choice. To keep an under-performing employee, just because everyone likes that person – is HR death! But, what do you do if the person is an average employee and well liked, but you get a chance to bring in superior talent? You do the same thing – but you you have to very careful on how you make that transition. Unfortunately, the talent that you and I bring into our organizations usually isn’t as highly publicized as a Peyton Manning! So, we, as HR/Talent Pros, have to do some of our own internal PR work on the new talent.

What does internal PR on a new hire look like? It starts with getting your leadership team all on the same page – they need to be excited and 100% supportive of the new person. Then focus on the new person’s direct team/department. They don’t have to be excited – remember they just lost someone they love – but they have to be supportive. The best way to do this is through a structured transition meeting – where they get to learn about the new person, but also voice their pain of their loss – it’s good for both parties to be on the same page. The final step is to get of the news release to the rest of the organization if all the high points of the new talent. Be careful not to do this first, because people will instantly run to the new group and ask about it. A transition meeting has to be done, so they a ready to respond and be supportive of the new person. To often in our organizations we rush to “tell everyone” before the person starts, or soon after, it’s more important to wait on this communication and get those closest up to speed first.

No one ever wants to let go of an organizational favorite – but in HR it’s our job to increase the talent of our organizations – sometimes that means making an unpopular decision. The best HR Pros find ways to move the organization forward quickly and while be supportive.

Trying Not To Lose in HR

Posted on March 19, 2012 by Tim Sackett

I love March – primarily for March Madness and because I love basketball. I spent the weekend watching as many NCAA Tournament games as possible, including a trip to Columbus, OH to watch my Michigan State Spartans compete in the 1st and 2nd rounds (which technically is in accurate – it was actually the 2nd and 3rd rounds because of those stupid play in games on Tuesday and Wednesday are “really” the 1st round – but they’re not, we all know it – the only people who truly think that is the 1st round is the NCAA and the parents of the kids playing in those games – which BTW are the only people in those stands watching!).

While enjoying this pastime I heard very often the sports cliche: “They are playing not to lose versus trying to win”.

For those who have competed in sports (and for many in business), you know exactly what this looks and feels like. It’s playing keep away with the ball when you’re up 3 in the first half! No! Stop! Run your normal offense. It’s your favorite NFL team going into a prevent defense up 10 points with 15 minutes to play (Don’t do it – it’s going to “prevent” you from winning!). Playing not to lose is being conservative – maybe to conservative – to the point of you stop doing what it took that got you in the position to win.

We do this in HR.

Too many times we tell managers “No”, when we should be telling them “Yes” – we become some risk avoidant they we miss out on some very good opportunities for our organization. It’s not HR’s job to avoid risk – it’s HR’s job to measure the level of risk and work with our organizational partners to determine if they are comfortable with the level of risk we are about to take. Those are to very different things – many HR Pros misconstrue this issue. They try at all costs to avoid all risk, which isn’t necessarily the right thing for the business. They aren’t trying to win, they’re trying not to lose.

The next time you find yourself in a position of giving advice to your operations partners at work, ask yourself this one question –

Am I trying to make the company/organization better right now, or am I trying to eliminate risk?

Then determine, what should I be doing? For some of you the right choice will be to say – at this point, right now, I have to eliminate risk – it’s the right call. But for many of you, you will have to circle back and truly try to make your organizations better by managing the risk that is presented.

Spend today trying to win.

#20 Rap Lyric That Shaped My Leadership Style

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Tim Sackett

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

The #20 Rap Lyric That Shaped My Leadership Style goes all the way back to 1989 with Uncle L himself, LL Cool J, and his song Jealous off his Walking With The Panther LP (the most popular song on this CD was Going Back to Cali! which starts out with a sweet trumpet solo). This was back to LL’s days of wearing the Kangol bucket hats, but I digress. Here’s the quote:

“He’s only mediocre, jealousy can’t get with me.”

(The track is so old I couldn’t even find a YouTube clip -but here’s a taste on Last.fm)

Jealousy is one of those emotions that usually sneaks up on you before you even know you have it. From a leadership standpoint, jealousy can kill teamwork, productivity and completely tear apart your culture. It’s essential for great leaders to not allow jealousy to undermine everything they are working towards, and it starts with yourself. I’ve never been one to be jealous, it’s not usually in my nature. I celebrate others successes and I’m truly happy for my coworkers, friends and family when they have success.

For those who know me, I coach youth athletics – a lot – and I can’t tell you how often on a weekly basis I see parents, who are really good people, completely use their minds over jealousy. Someone’s kid has a great game or play, and parents will just unload on the kid, their parents, their ability, their work ethic, etc. Jealousy runs rampant in youth athletics. It’s rare to find a youth team nowadays that truly celebrates each others successes, because their parents are working against it the moment they get in the car, if not before!

I see this in work environments as well. How do you stop it? You have to address it when it happens and to whom is doing it – timely and specific (oh wait, doesn’t that sound like really good performance management advice!?). I find a quick cold splash of water in the face usually tells that person and the team, that behavior isn’t allowed in our house (I don’t actually throw cold water – it’s a metaphor for having a very direct conversation – but I might rethink the cold water if the conversation doesn’t work!). Jealousy has no room in our organizations – it will kill a good team faster than almost anything else. Unfortunately, sometimes we hire someone who is just prone to this emotion more than others, and it’s a very hard emotion to stop and control.

Jealousy can’t get with me – what about you?

The First Lie You Hear in HR

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Tim Sackett

Many of you are now aware that Peyton Manning, All Pro NFL Quarterback, was released by the Indianapolis Colts (I wrote about here). Long story short – he was injured, he’s the back side of his career, he was due a boatload of money – Indianapolis made a business decision to let him go. There was this really heartfelt press conference with the owner of the Indianapolis Colts, Jim Irsay, and Peyton the day he was released where they both cried and talked about how much they loved and respected each other. But within all that – there was one Giant lie – one we hear all the time in HR.

Jim Irsay stood at the podium and said – This is not about money.

Boom! Liar!

It’s always about money – and this was about money. If Irsay would have kept Peyton on 1 more day – it would have cost his organization $28M. It was about and is about money – you don’t know if he’s going to perform at the level he has over the past 14 years, and you aren’t willing to risk $28M on that decision to keep him.

I can’t tell you how many times in HR I’ve hear this statement from employees who are leaving for another company – and 99.9% of the time they are flat out lying to your face! “Tim, I’m putting in my two weeks notice” “What can we do to keep you?” “Nothing – it’s not about the money – I’m looking for that next phase in my career” “So, you won’t stay if we pay you $100K more!” “Well, wait a minute – you would pay me $100K more?!” “No! I just wanted to show you it is about money – now go – I don’t like to work with Liars!”

That’s exactly how you do it – HR Newbies! When someone tells you it’s not about money – start negotiating and find that price – you’ll get to it pretty quickly. “But Tim, it isn’t about money – I want to spend more time with my kids – I need balance.” “I’ll give you a 50% increase” “You know my kids will sure like going to private schools, much more than public schools.” Everyone has a price – just some prices are more expensive than others – but never let anyone tell you – It’s not about the money – it is.

If Peyton would have went to Irsay and said – “Look Jimmy (I assume he calls him Jimmy) I want to do right by the Colts – I’ll accept the league minimum to stay hear” “Peyton, you got yourself a deal!” would have been the entire conversation. But Peyton is smart – he knows his value – as does Jimmy – so they cut him loose. We do this all the time with our employees. Mary from IT just came in and said she got a new job paying her 20% more – and we calculate how much that will cost to raise up Mary, and everyone else in her same position. We then look at Mary, shake her hand and tell her good luck. It’s about the money.

All Hail The Newest Job Board

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Tim Sackett

With the Death March of Monster that has been going on in the media lately (check out Jason Buss’s post on it from last week – 7 Warning Signs For Monster), I thought it was high time we start giving kudos to the new King of the Job Boards!

So, without further ado – Please give a warm welcome and many slaps on the back to…

What did you think I was going say – CareerBuilder?! They are just Monster with different shoes.

The real congratulations goes to LinkedIn! They put so much time and effort into building their next generation job board, I’m really proud of them. It wasn’t easy to reinvent the job board industry, but they found away. Sure it was by first establishing themselves as a credible “networking” site, before pulling wool over the eyes of its members and selling their contact information to corporate recruiters for $8500 per year. I mean it was pure genius! It actually brings a tear to my eye.

Monster and CareerBuilder could only have dreamed of making a site that looks like a legitimate networking site, one that HR folks actually encourage their employees to get onto – only to be systematically picked off by their competition. Pure magic!

Today I’m going to recommend, as a HR community, that we do something to recognize LinkedIn as the biggest HR innovation of the 21st century. Somebody call Bill Kutik to see if he can put this award together in time for HR Tech 2012. It was going to be no small task to reinvent the job boards – but as a Talent Pro I’m sure glad that somebody figured it out – Thank You LinkedIn! We bow to your greatness.

#21 Rap Lyric That Shaped My Leadership Style

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Tim Sackett

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

The #21 Rap Lyric That Shaped My Leadership Style comes from the Beastie Boys – Johnny Ryall off their 1989 Paul’s Boutique LP:

“Elvis shaved his head when he went into the Army.”

Johnny Ryall (Click on link to take you to the You Tube video)

Love the Beastie’s! This quote towards the end of the song reminds me of how so many of our employees that we hire with such high hopes, fail, because we/they made decisions not to fit into the culture. Elvis was the King of Rock and Roll and he probably could have talked the Armed Forces into just about anything, because of the amount of positive press they would receive with someone like him demonstrating a positive experience of going into the service. Instead he sat down in the chair and had them shave off his famous hair.

Sometimes when you go into a new company you need to shave off your hair! “But, Tim, I’m an individual and I like my hair long! No way I’m shaving it off!” Fine – just don’t work here. If you don’t want to fit into the culture -don’t – go someplace else where the culture will embrace your long hair (by the way this post isn’t about long hair – I’m sure most of you get that – but some won’t!). The best employees come in and make efforts to fit into the culture that is established, they don’t come in and try to change the culture. One of my HR mentors once told me, “Tim, culture always wins.” You can change out every single person in a department over time, and come back a year later and that department will have the same culture it had before any of those people were there.

Don’t hang on to employees who are working against your culture – it never ends well – you’re frustrated, they’re frustrated – move on. You might not have the best culture, but one employee, working against your average culture, isn’t going to make it better – it’s going to make it worse. Fit in first, then work within the culture to make it better.

Culture always wins. Shave your head.

Moving Out A “Legend” Employee

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Tim Sackett

The Indianapolis Colts decided yesterday to part ways with their All-Pro, MVP, Future Hall of Fame Quarterback, Peyton Manning (BTW my wife loves him! My sons and I call him, her boyfriend). Here are some of Peyton’s accomplishments while in Indianapolis from ESPN:

-Manning killed it on “Saturday Night Live” (“I just thought about going out there for the second half, and a little bit of pee came out.”)

-Manning reported to the Giants Stadium interview room wearing a suit and tie — and no shoes or socks — after a night-game win against his brother Eli. He did it (and I was there) because he knew the East Coast sports writers were on a crushing deadline.

-Manning led the Colts to a pair of Super Bowls and won one.

-Manning engineered a comeback for the ages: down 21 points at Tampa Bay with four minutes left, and won the game in OT!

-Manning never made TMZ’s greatest hits.

-Manning prepared so thoroughly that he could have double-dipped as a coach.

-Manning had 63 games with at least 300 passing yards.

-Manning was proud of playing in Indianapolis.

Why did they do this (you might be asking yourself if you don’t follow NFL football)? Peyton got injured last year (neck), had major surgery, no one will know if he’ll ever be the same. He was due $28M if they kept him on the roster as of yesterday. And, oh by the way, they have the #1 pick in this year’s NFL draft that has at least one “can’t-miss” future Hall of Fame Quarterback. Some pretty good reasons, from a business standpoint.

But, you know what? It sucks!

It might be the right business decision – but it definitely isn’t the right people decision. Or is it? This is what we do in HR, right? We are constantly balancing business decisions and people decisions. The Indianapolis Colts will move on. Peyton will move on. But it sucks that they broke up the band! If the life cycle of an organization. Even your best most trusted employees will eventually leave – retirement, death, new opportunity – name your poison. It’s HR’s job to help the organization move on in a positive light, even when it’s so dark you don’t think there is any light.

The Indianapolis Colts did what was right for their franchise. Star employee at the end of their career – potential to pick up new start employee at the beginning of their career. It isn’t about one person – it’s about all the people in the organization – and that makes it a tough decision, but an easy decision. We usually try and cover this up in the real world by throwing an unwanted retirement party and giving out a nice plaque for all their service, only to find out 4 weeks later the person is back to work at our competitors and stealing our clients! The Colts will feel some of this as well – when Peyton goes and plays for another team and does well. It won’t make their decision wrong – it just makes it harder to swallow.

Like Winnie the Pooh said: “Don’t cry because it’s over – Smile because it happened”

You Don’t Want a HR Social Media Position

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Tim Sackett

Do you know how many times in the past 12 months I’ve heard someone say – “I’m looking for a social media position”? Enough to know that we don’t need that many Social Media HR people!

Let me give some HR job seekers a little tip – You don’t want a position in HR that is created around social media! This is a dead-end HR job. (Oh boy, as I just wrote that I could hear people that I know losing their f’ing minds!) Take a minute and let yourself really think about it, before you respond. Social Media is sexy and fun, and you can add some value to your organization, and even some to HR – but if you really want to be in HR – taking the path of social media isn’t going to move you up in HR. I run into too many HR Social Media folks who have really no clue about HR – but they LOVE their jobs. Many of these folks seem to be out of those jobs very quickly – job after job after job.

You see it doesn’t take an organization long to understand that social media isn’t a position – it’s a tool. A tool that can be used by everyone in HR, without a ton of effort, once you get the train going down the tracks. That’s why you see HR Social Media positions crop up, then get cut in a 6th month window. Organizations want results, they want to measure productivity – and while social media has a ton of things you can measure – it’s really hard for a HR Social Media Pro to prove their value.

“But Tim – I LOVE social media and HR – what am I suppose to do?” Employment Branding is probably the best fit. But you need more than social media chops for this – you need some marketing chops, some creativity, some business sense and networking ability to make this work. Employment branding isn’t building a facebook page and using the term “Talent Community” in every meeting you attend. It’s your ability to share your organizations story, while at the same time not losing the look and feel of what your actual brand is – that’s much harder than it looks! You can be this highly conservative established brand, and try and sell your employment brand is young hip come-as-you-are party – it’s not authentic and it will fail. Thus, you have to find a way to share the value and positives of what you actually do have. I know so many employment branding folks who fail, for the simple fact that they “try” to establish an employment brand, this isn’t their brand. “But we want a cool brand like Google!” Well, you’re not Google – you’re GM – you’ll never be Google – but you have some cool stuff of your own – share that.

Look I get it – Social Media is exciting and sexy – but don’t confuse that with your ability to create a career path using it. There are about 15 people in the world that have been able to do that, for longer than 6 months, and there are about 500,000 HR positions. Love Social Media in HR, just don’t LOVE it. Integrate the tools, have real HR chops – look to last past 6 months.

The Tim Sackett Project

TA & HR Expert, Dad, Backup Point Guard on my over 40 men's team