The Art of Building a Perfect Team

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A newer sports/coaches book is out and it’s from the NFL coaching guru Bill Belichick called – War Room: The Legacy of Bill Belichick and Art of Building The Perfect Team.  I’m not a huge fan of the New England Patriots or Bill Belichick, but he definitely has created a winning organization over an extended period of time so I was really interested to see what his philosophy was to sustain such a high level or a long period of time.  While the book itself is fairly what you’d expect from a coaching type book – i.e., hire the right people, focus on details, etc., one thing caught me off guard and has extended application to HR and how we build teams in our organizations.

One philosophy Belichick has is that you measure all people, for the position they have by the same matrix.  Sounds basic and straightforward –  right?  But it isn’t – it’s not what we do in HR – we “tweak” it.  Here’s an example – let’s say you have 3 customer service reps, all in the same position, same job description, same pay grade.  Customer Service Rep #1 is a newbie, fresh out of school, no real world work experience. Customer Service Rep #2 is a solid performer with 5 years in position, a rock.  Customer Service Rep #3 is your senior level rep – in position for 15 years, definitely knows the history of where the department has been over the past 15 years, your her 4th supervisor.  You are in position for one year and you’ve been asked by leadership to give a performance assessment of your team of 3 – ranking them 1 to 5 – 5 being the best.  Each rank is independent of the other.

You have high standards and while all are good performers, none of them are great.  Rep #1 (newbie) you give a “3” – for being new in position they are coming up to speed nicely especially being only on for a short period of time.  Rep #2 also gets a “3” – the person is a rock, but to move to the next level they really need to start showing more imitative and informal leadership ability.  Rep #3 also gets a “3” for someone who has been on for so long – they should be far an away the top performer, but they are not – yes, they are better than the majority of Reps across the company in other departments, but you expect more from someone with such tenure.

Sounds familiar – doesn’t it?  Even though all 3 do the same position – we measure them differently based on our expectations of what we think they should bring to the table.  You’ve been told you have to cut two of the individuals from your team – who do you cut.  The majority of HR folks would cut #1 and #2- less seniority, less experience – it’s safe.  Who would Belichick cut?

This is the heart of his philosophy on building a great team – he cuts #1 and #3. Why?  #1 is easy – not enough performance and experience. #3 has been given the opportunity, shown what he can do and has based on performance has shown his “ceiling” for what you can expect.  #2 has similar performance to #3, costs less money, and hasn’t shown that she has reached her ceiling performance level.  If you do this consistently over time with linebackers, defensive backs, offensive lineman, etc. – what you get is great value-to-talent ratio.

So, do you think your organization really measures everyone by position, equally?  Could you build your organization around a Belichick model?  Would your organization be better or worse for it?  All good questions – I tend to think organizations fear really measuring performance because they fear they will always cut the more tenure workers – which isn’t true, but in HR we don’t like all that risk – so we shy away from truly building our teams based on performance.  How many people who went through layoffs over the past 3-4 years really kept their best talent? Not enough, I can tell you that.

 

 

Secrets of a D-List Blogger: 3 Minutes with Tim Sackett

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I saw that Penelope Trunk running a training series called: Secrets of an A-List Blogger: A Week with Penelope Trunk, which I’m sure is a great training series, but the title struck me very funny!  So, let’s be clear so that Penelope and her gang of 20 somethings don’t come after me – I’m not making fun of Penelope, I’m making fun of the difference between the level of bloggers – A-List to D-List.

I have no idea what Penelope is teaching in her A-List series for Bloggers, but I can give you the D-List version and it won’t take you a week – let me spin you some knowledge in 3 minutes or less.

Secrets of a D-List Blogger:

1. You don’t have to be a good writer to be a good blogger – but you better have an opinion and a take on what’s going on in the world.  No one wants to read anything by someone sitting on the fence.

2. If sitting down to write a blog post feels like you’re back in high school and you have a writing assignment – blogging isn’t for you.  Writing should come naturally and easily – 99.9% of bloggers (especially those of us on the D-List) don’t get paid, so you better love writing and sharing your opinions.

3.  No one wants to hear about your cats – unless your Laurie Ruettimann – and well, she already captured that market.  What this means is, before you start to blog, decide why you want to blog and to who you want to blog to.  Laurie got the cat loving HR ladies – you’ll have to pick some other group!  I chose to go after the 17 HR people who don’t read Laurie – it’s a small audience, but they’re loyal!

4.  Creating content doesn’t have to be hard.  Fill up your Google Reader with great stuff, then pick out an article, drop a couple paragraphs from the article into your post, respond to it and give your perspective. Bam! The 15 minute post.

5.  If you want to create an audience and drive traffic – you better ask Penelope – I’m on the D-List – I still tell myself it’s about the love of writing and HR.  Please leave me a comment and tell me that’s what it’s about!  You can hang out in the community you’re writing in, via social media, and read, comment and interact to grow your audience, but to be honest it’s freaking exhausting – and let’s be real, you’re blogging, you don’t really care what other people have to say, just what you have to say – a least that what my therapists tells me!

6.  No one wants to read boring stuff and be educated (that’s what Wiki’s for), they want to be entertained for the 60 seconds they’ll spend at your blog – so Dance Monkey! This also means you’ll have to title your blogs in a provocative manner to get people to read your posts (i.e., 10 Ways to Nail a Stripper Interview – would be highly read over 10 Ways to Knock that Interview out of the Park – same content, different title, way different click thru’s).

7. Don’t listen to your critics, unless they’re a better writer than you.  Don’t worry, you’ll know if they are better.

So, there you go, just shy of the $195 Penelope is going to charge you – but hey – you only got the D-List version!

HR Pros – You Can’t Handle The Truth

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I got a chance to spend some time this past weekend with a group of veterans and here’s what I came away with…

As HR/Talent Pros we are constantly looking for “silver bullets” when it comes to hiring.  We’ll pretty much try and do almost anything it we think it’s going to bring our organizations better talent.  This is why I’m perplexed at the one huge Talent miss most organizations are not fully invested into using – Veterans!  Think about the following benefits of hiring veterans:

  •  Team Work – if anyone has been drilled on team work – it’s our military men and women.  Many of us struggle in our organizations to get our people to play nice with each other – and here we have this huge pool of talent that is all about team work (No One Gets Left Behind isn’t a slogan, they have lived it!).
  •  Follow & Give Directions – HR Pros have classic stories about employees who can’t follow simple directions – and/or can’t give simple directions. I’d bet 90% of HR Pros nationally will at some point this year be having conversations with their senior leadership about “leadership” training – that simply consists of getting their managers to give straightforward, concise directions and feedback.
  •  Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines – When someone’s life or safety is at risk, you learn how to work under extreme pressure, which probably pales in comparison to much of the pressure we put on ourselves and our employees in normal work situations.  Regardless, having individuals who can not only handle pressure, but thrive under pressure, are skills our organizations need.
  •  Planning and Organization – One thing our military veterans are known for is the training they receive in regards to planning and organization – and it’s the one thing we struggle with getting our employees to be good at.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve spoken to hiring managers where they’ll say “it’s critical this person be highly organized” – veteran’s military training turns them into organization machines.
  •  Flexibility and Adaptability – One thing is constant in all of our organizations – Change!  We spend so much of our resources on change management – primarily because we know our employees, for the most part, will freak out at the slightest change.  Not veterans – they have lived in a world where they were forced to adapt and change constantly, based on external environmental changes they had no control over – again – their training takes over – they move on and work to continue the mission of the organization.

So, why do we as HR/Talent Pros struggle to hire Veterans?  First off I have to say, from personal experience, not hiring veterans is not an issue of the veterans, but it’s an issue of HR Pros!  We (the HR collective) are very set in a single mindset that we can only hire people, and our hiring managers will only accept people, that meet every qualification listed on the job description – which is complete BS – but we allow this to continue.  Am I going to go out and hire a former Army tank mechanic to run my accounting department? No – they don’t have that background – but could I hire a great person and train them to be a machinists, or an inspector, or a hundred other positions in our organizations!   We are a “instant gratification” society – so we struggle with the concept of hiring great solid citizens, then training them to do what we need.  “But Tim! You don’t get it – we train them, then they take off on us!”  Yeah, I get it – stop using that as an excuse – people don’t leave great work environments – and by the way – veterans have a higher loyalty index than your average employee.

Also, there are some misnomers we truly need to dispel –

1.People go into the military because they were trouble makers or not smart enough to get into college.  Not true – I know plenty of stupid, trouble makers who went to college! And I can show you pictures!  The fact is, at 18 years old many of us didn’t know what we wanted, but they might have known going to school for another 4 years wasn’t something they wanted.  The military seemed like a better option – and for the majority – it definitely was.

2.  Veterans are rigid and only know top-down management style.  In the 1950’s this was true – but today’s veterans have gone through so much soft skills leadership training it would make the most skeptical OD person smile.

3. We don’t have the time or money to train veterans for our work environment – we need fully trained people now!  No you don’t – is that why you’ve had that position open for 6 months – because you need it “Now!”?   The fact is, this is an organizational choice and you as an HR Pro have the influence to change it.  There is so much money out there for organizations to train returning veterans it borders on ridiculous – but you’ll have to do some work with your local veteran’s employment offices to get it – but it’s there.

We live in a great country – no matter what the 99%ers are telling you.  We have great men and women who make a personal choice to keep this country great – in our military veterans.  As employers, as citizens, we owe these men and women a chance – a chance to make our organizations great, a chance to pay them back with opportunity for their service, a chance for them to show us they made the right decision to serve our country and become highly functioning, loyal, mature adults ready to work their butts off for your company.  All they want is a chance to show you they can be great.  They are asking for a handout – just an opportunity.  We hold that opportunity – are you willing to give it to them?

 

 

3 HR Conference Presentations worth $50,000

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I was traveling back from the HR Southwest conference this past week and a conversation I had while there got me thinking of some of the better presentations I’ve seen over the past year.  The conversation wasn’t around “who was the best speaker”, it was around “who was the most expensive speaker”.  For those who don’t know 90% of the presentations you see at HR Conferences are done by HR Pros – like you and me – who aren’t being paid a dime – if they are lucky someone will pay their travel expenses.  The other 10% get speaking fees that range from $500 to $125,000 for 1 hour and 30 minutes of work.  Yes, you read that correctly – $125,000!  Now, let’s be straight – you probably haven’t seen anyone speaking at an HR conference who made $125K – but if you go to the largest HR conferences you saw someone who made $50K for that 90 minutes you saw them!

Here’s my question: If the HR Conference came out and told you how much the person was being paid, before they started their speech – would that change they way you thought of that speech?  Oh, boy that changes everything doesn’t it!?  Can you imagine –

“Please welcome to the stage, being paid $40K for the next 90 minutes, Mrs. X!” 

I wonder if there would be applause and a standing ovation that we see so often.  I wonder if you would leave feeling like that was the most inspirational thing I’ve ever heard – certainly worth $40K. Interesting to think about, at the very least.   The sad part is, the money has absolutely no correlation to quality and content.  I’ve seen some of the best speakers this year – some of which didn’t get paid a dime, and some that got paid very small amounts.  Sure there are a handful who get very good money, that I’ve really enjoyed – but I didn’t enjoy them $10-20K more then the free guys and gals!

Here’s where I think the high price presenters separate themselves – they’ve found the magic “formula’ for conference speaking – it involves presenting one of three types presentations:

1. Inspirational/Motivation – these are the presentations when someone comes to show you how hard they had it, way harder than you or I, and came all the way back and now they are on the stage making you feel like a piece of crap because you were just complaining about how the lady at Starbucks didn’t make your non-fat soy latte the way you like it.  Think Michael J. Fox at SHRM – a ton of 80’s comedy movies/TV shows – beautiful, successful wife – boom he get’s Parkinson’s – but he keeps fighting on – and you sit there going “nice, I bitch every morning about getting up and walking my two healthy legs downstairs to make my own coffee” – $40K please – thank you – I only have 25 more of these to do this year.

2. The Silver Bullet – these presentations are the ones where the presenter actually tells you about, or shows you, something that will change your life and/or your organization or department – right away.  Don’t confuse the Silver Bullet with the boring presentations that regurgitate stuff you already knew or could easily look up on your own – but the presenter truly believes they are giving you something you’ve heard for the first time.  The Silver Bullet gives you an epiphany – something concrete – tangible – that will transform how you do what you do.  This is probably the toughest type of presentation to find – but these are the ones you remember from each conference. Unfortunately Silver Bullet presenters don’t make as much – $500-$5,000 range.  State SHRM Conferences should really search these people out – but they don’t – they want a big name – which usually disappoints.

3. Dancing Monkey – Don’t get confused by the name to think these aren’t good – they can be the best!  The Dancing Monkey presentation is done by those presenters who flat out know how to entertain.  They are polished – they can make you laugh and cry  – all in 90 minutes – they always deliver – they get on stage and do anything it takes to entertain the masses – including Dancing like a monkey, if needed, and you’re happy!  You forget about your crappy job and crappy co-workers for a little while – and you leave feeling good.  These people usually are the middle level of cost – $2,500 to $25,000 – but you usually never feel taken.

What about all the one’s that don’t fit into these categories?  They suck – they’re either boring or ill informed or just flat out missed the mark (think Richard Branson at SHRM National or a presentation on I-9 Compliance).  Want to be a speaker at an HR conference? Figure out how to get your message into one of the 3 types above and become an excellent story teller – Cat stories optional.

 

Things…

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Finishing up the HR Conference season for 2011 and I have a few things that have been bugging me…

I. Wireless Access – Let’s begin here (and I could probably end here as well!) – when do we jump the shark at HR conferences when wireless access is the “new” normal – SHRM National – the largest conference – no access in the sessions – HR Southwest – the second largest show – no access –  how are we suppose to live tweet/Facebook/and Shop (just for boring sessions) when there is no wireless access. I get most have smart phones – but really – if you’re in a a good session you need a full keyboard to keep up with all the gems being shared.  A few get it – HR Tech is one – which you would assume – it’s Tech! plus the Godfather of HR Bill Kutik get’s it.  Some state conferences get it – mostly those being organized and run by HR Bloggers.  But really the majority still don’t – Kris Dunn and I were at HR Southwest this week and they wanted the low, low price of $99.95 per day for wireless access – I kid you not!

II. Swag – Unlike my friend William Tincup who wants to abolish swag and just have “real ” conversations – like HR folks want those! – I think we need to up the swag game to monumental proportions.  Go big or go home with your Swag, HR vendors.  Let’s face it with the crappy economy old school wine and dine is back into fashion and I think too many vendors are missing the boat.  Want to have a “real” conversation William?  Offer something “real” to the HR Pro to sit down with you, besides your over hyped, over priced software that only does 13% of what you actually say it will do.  The one’s I love are when some idiot sends you like a portable DVD player, but without the battery, and says “if you meet with me for 30 minutes I’ll bring in the battery and it’s all yours to keep.”  Well that’s a start – but the portable DVD player you sent just really made me feel sorry for you, and that’s probably why I would meet with you!   In 2012 I’m looking for a vendor to offer up Cash! That’s right – my time is money baby!  Want to sit down and blow hot air up my butt – give me some money.  Heck for $50 bucks, for 30 minutes, I’ll even sit close to you on your little stupid coach at the show and hold hands!

III.  Conference Groupies – I don’t know about you guys – but I have a job – and my job isn’t going to conferences – but it seems like there is a core group of folks that somehow fell into these cool jobs of just going to conferences.  Not sure who pays them to do this – but this is kind of their thing.  I know most of these folks get free admission – but the travel is still super expensive.  I wouldn’t even comment on this but for the simple fact, I don’t see these folks really doing anything besides showing up to the parties to get free drinks – oh and the obligatory blog post on how “this” conference is the best ever, followed by a handful of tweets saying how great whoever it was that gave them the free pass to come to the conference and some drunk flickr photos.   BTW – if you are offended by the following paragraph – you are a conference groupie.

Corporate HR Strategy in 3 Steps

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Step 1  Send out a meeting request to all HR leaders – sorry managers, you aren’t really leaders – we meant Directors and above (unless there’s only 6 people in HR – then Directors you aren’t invited either)

Step 2 In Meeting – decide on what the agenda should be for the meeting. Reschedule meeting.

Step 3 New Meeting – Change every process we have, be more efficient, be more strategic, be more technological savvy, implement an entire new HRIS system, create a new employment brand, only hire top talent, kill our “C” players, institute pay for performance, design a completely new performance management system, revamp the hiring process, and update those employment posters in the break room.

Next day –

CFO delivers your HR budget.

Cancel HR Strategy.

12 Companies That Control HR

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Forbes recently had an article titled “The 147 Companies that Control Everything“, put together by a Swiss think tank the study attempts to pin point those companies that are most connected to making “it” happen worldwide (and by “it” I mean “everything”).  From the article:

Three systems theorists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich have taken a database listing 37 million companies and investors worldwide and analyzed all 43,060 transnational corporations and share ownerships linking them. They built a model of who owns what and what their revenues are and mapped the whole edifice of economic power…The authors of the paper did not publish the entire roster of companies with their study, but one of the co-authors, Dr. James Glattfelder, says the 737 companies that control 80% of the global economy will be available next week. The 147 are included in that group.

This concept really got me to thinking about the HR/Talent industry and which companies truly control what we do as HR/Talent Pros.  Yeah, yeah, we all have free will, but the fact of the matter is, these companies will determine what you do and how you do HR and Recruiting over the foreseeable future.  Don’t think so?  You’re wrong – we’re sheep – we follow – have you or anyone you know paid $5-8 for a cupcake in the last 2-3 years?  You couldn’t give those cupcakes away your mom made you take to school in 3rd grade. Now we have special cupcake shops, and TV shoes, and blogs – and they’re stupid CUPCAKES!   You’re a sheep – face it.  Now take a look at the list below so you can know what you’ll be buying or who you’ll be following over the next few years –

1. Google – Um, What?!  Yep that Google – whether you like it or not – the Do No Evil Empire is taking over and there is nothing you can do about it.  No one wants to give there employees free gourmet lunches, and let them bring their cats to work, and come and go as they please – it’s an HR nightmare!  But Google does it – so now you have to find some way to compete.  Doesn’t matter if you’re selling toilet seats in Oklahoma City – you’re employees read an article about Google now you’ve got to put doors on the stalls in the restroom – damn you Google!

2. Zappos – see Google – one night of Tony going a little too deep down the rabbit hole – now we have to “Find Happiness” for all of our employees  – damn you Tony!

3. Peoplesoft Oracle & SAP – These two giant ERP’s run most medium and large HR shops – which means every time they think you need something, they make a change and watch all hell break out across their client base.  The perfect example of the tail wagging the dog.

4. CareerBuilder …er, Monster – I know, I know – CareerBuilder is bigger – but ask any candidate looking for a job and first word out of their mouth will be “Monster” – better branding, better name recognition.  The basic framework of both companies hasn’t changed since the OCC (Online Career Center – check it out kids) launched in the early 90’s – I’ve got job, you need job, I post job, you apply for job, you get job.  Either way you’re buying because it’s the only way your “Post and Pray” recruiting process has any way of succeeding.  Don’t worry the Job Boards aren’t dying – mainly because we are too lazy to kill them.

5. LinkedIn – Linkedin did what neither CareerBuilder or Monster could ever do – they made it “OK” to post your “resume” online and not have your HR people lose their minds that you were looking for another job!   Now you can be working and job searching at the same time and there’s a good chance your short-sighted HR manager will actually teach a class on how to “spruce” up your profile.  But, really it’s all about “professional networking”…

6. Facebook – Not since windows Solitaire has there been a bigger time suck than Facebook at work, and one that more HR Pros have spend man-hours proving to their senior leadership is actually valuable – so please don’t shut our employees off – because we need to be more like Google.  Where LinkedIn succeeded, Facebook is on the verge of eating their lunch.  LinkedIn is cute with their 200 million users, Facebook has your Grandmother by the neck and won’t let go!  When Facebook decides to take down LinkedIn – HR – you’ll have a new master to bow down to.

7. ADP –   Seriously – do you know how many jobs were created last month?  No one does, not even the President – that’s why they ask ADP!  A Payroll service that got one of those Ghostbuster – StayPuft Marshmallow – kind of steroid injection – ADP now tells the biggest government of the free world how many jobs were created  – and we listen.   Gone are the days of Marge in your payroll office telling you, you will just have to wait for your check – ADP fired her and now does her same job faster, cheaper and with less errors.

8. Towers Watson and Mercer and Aon Hewitt – Like a bad HR law firm – the big 3 HR consulting shops give your senior leadership HR advice because you don’t have credibility.  What advice do they give them?  The same crap you’ve been trying to get your company to do for the last 4 years, but your senior leaders felt better about taking the advice from them after paying a six figure invoice, and listening to a 27 year old – 3 years out of Northwestern’s MBA program with a red tie, tell them how to run the people side of their business.

***Thanks to my friend John Hollon, over at TLNT, for helping me out with this very official list!***

The 53% Want You To Occupy A Job

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My BFF, who is a girl, who is in HR and who loves cats – yep – that Cynical Girl, Laurie Ruettimann – wrote a post today about an article I sent her yesterday – CNN Money – The 53%: We Are NOT Occupy Wall Street.  The article is about this great group of American’s who pay taxes – no that’s not 99% of Americans – it’s about 53% of us.  Us 53% allow for our non-paying 99%ers to go sit in a park and attempt to speak for all of us not making as much as the richest 1% of Americans.   From CNN Money –

They call themselves the 53%…as in the 53% of Americans who pay federal income taxes. And they are making their voices heard on Tumblr blogs, Twitter and Facebook pages devoted to stories of personal responsibility and work ethic.

The number originates in the estimate that roughly 47% of Americans don’t pay federal income tax, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. The 53 percenters stress the fact that they are paying the taxes that support the government assistance the protesters say they want.

I’ve already said in a post (Occupy Your Cube) I don’t understand these 99%ers – it don’t support or not support their cause – I’m indifferent.  Not indifferent to those out there looking for a job – I feel their plight.  I’m indifferent to how the 99%ers are going about voicing their outrage  – and choosing to go after rich people as their target.  The problem with our economy is not rich people – we’ve always had rich people, and G*d willing America will always have rich people.  I mean seriously – The Lotto – is the last great American Dream we have – everybody wants to win the Powerball – $173M this Saturday -I already bought my ticket – so this is probably my last post after Saturday – sorry suckers – but I’ll be Rich! Just ordered my “I’m in the 1%er cube get off my lawn!” hoodie.

Here’s what I know.  Last night after sending this article to Laurie – I drove home in my SUV.  As I drove up various busy streets I counted 7 Help Wanted signs – 7! – in about a 2 mile stretch.  In Michigan – Help Needed!  I just left my desk where I have over 100 openings I’m trying to find talent for – got off the phone with companies planning to hire many more in the coming future.  I spoke to one company in my area who could hire as many people as I could find – good jobs – potentially making $40K a year.  He can’t find people who are willing to do the work.  I then drove by a small park in downtown Lansing, MI less than a mile from the State Capitol building and saw 25 or so 99%er protestors and their camp.   Are the jobs all white collar jobs, paying $65K a year, sitting behind a desk? – no they are not – I’m sure most of the Help Wanted signs have some manual labor involved, starting at the bottom – but all have some potential.

Here’s what HR has taught me over the last 20 years.  Not everyone wants to be out of a job – the vast majority of people want to be employed.  There is a percentage of the workforce that puts as little effort as they can to keep their job and still get paid.  Under 5% unemployment is pretty much 0% percent unemployment – because not many of us HR Pros – want that bottom 4%.  Of the 15 Million Americans who are unemployed – out of 300 Million Americans – 3 Million of those don’t want to work to support themselves – that’s reality.

There are a lot of numbers out there – and everyone has their opinion – but I’m in HR – so I’m not sharing mine – being on the fence is where I’m most comfortable!

 

6 Figure Salary & Still Homeless

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Think you got employees problems – check this out from CNN Money – America’s Biggest Boomtown:

In the town of Williston, N.D., America’s newest oil boomtown, more than 6,000 job seekers have come from every corner of the country looking for work. Yet, oil companies and other developers haven’t been able to build housing units fast enough.

In the past year, only about 2,000 new housing units have been built, leaving many workers out in the cold.

With dozens of job seekers arriving by the day and fewer and fewer spots for them live in, people are taking some desperate measures.

Newer arrivals who can’t find vacant hotel rooms or apartments sleep in their cars or in sleeping bags on spare patches of grass along the highway. The luckier ones nab a spot in one of the dozens of dorm-like facilities, known as “man camps,” that the oil companies have built to house their workers.

The living conditions are far from ideal, but to some of these workers the lure of doubling or tripling their salaries far outweighs the physical and mental toll it can take…

Halliburton, one of the major drilling and hydraulic fracturing companies in the region, even went so far as to have the Olympic Village housing units that were used for the security guards from the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics relocated to the town for its workers.

Benjamin Lukes, 31, has been living in Halliburton’s “man camp” for almost a year now.

Lukes is bringing in roughly $100,000 a year (including overtime pay), nearly triple the amount he made back in Minnesota when he was manufacturing plastics. But it means being far from his family and living in quarters that he likens to a “prison cell.”

The facility is wall-to-wall white, with long empty hallways and flourescent lighting. Lukes’ room is about 160 square feet, the walls are bare — except for a drawing from his daughter — and there’s a metal-framed twin bed.

In HR we talk about having “High Class” problems – this is a perfect example of having a high class problem!   It wouldn’t matter if these people were making $300,000 they would still be sleeping in an RV in the Walmart parking lot.  One of the most stressful and fun times you can ever have as an HR Pro is to a be a part of a company growing so fast, and so profitable, that you have “high class” problems.  When senior leadership is coming to you, not just asking for more talent, but to find a way to house all of the talent you’re bringing in – and you actually get to use those creative juices that HR has locked away in your soul.

It all makes me think of just one thing:

Come and listen to a story about a man named Jed
A poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed,
Then one day he was shootin at some food,
And up through the ground came a bubblin crude.Oil that is, black gold, Texas tea.

Well the first thing you know ol Jed’s a millionaire,
Kinfolk said “Jed move away from there”
Said “Californy is the place you ought to be”
So they loaded up the truck and moved to Beverly.

Hills, that is. Swimmin pools, movie stars.

Since the 1850’s America has been chasing the oil dream, and it’s 2011 and for how much we’ve changed – we’re still chasing the dream!

3 Reasons we liked Steve Jobs as a Leader

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Let me start this by saying Steve and I rarely got together for lunch or meetings (and by “rarely” I mean never).  That doesn’t mean many of us don’t have opinions on why Steve Jobs was a great business leader.  With the upcoming release of the biography ‘Steve Jobs” many details are coming out about his thoughts and feelings on many things including: Google, Bill Gate and President Obama.  From the PC World article: Steve Jobs Biography: 5 Tidbits You Need To Read –

We’ve heard before about how Steve Jobs purportedly felt betrayed by Google over Android and believed the search giant was trying to kill the iPhone with its mobile OS. But Jobs made his feelings about Android clearer to Isaacon, saying he was “willing to go thermonuclear war” against Google over Android, according to the Huffington Post. Jobs also referred to Android as “grand theft” of Apple’s iPhone and was purportedly willing to spend every last dime of Apple’s $40 billion cash reserves to get rid of Android…

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates grew to respect Jobs. In 2007, during a joint interview with the Apple chief at the D5 conference Gates commended Jobs for creating the first mass market PC, the Apple II.

Jobs, on the other hand, didn’t return the favor. In Isaacson’s book, Jobs called Gates “unimaginative” and someone who “shamelessly ripped off other people’s ideas,” according to the Huffington Post. Jobs even said Gates was more comfortable in philanthropy, because of his lack of imagination. Ouch…

Apple is often admired for its advertising campaigns, and Jobs apparently offered to lend his marketing genius to President Obama by creating ads for his 2012 re-election campaign. The Apple chief made the same offer to the Obama campaign in 2008, but the partnership led nowhere after friction developed between Jobs and Obama’s then-chief strategist David Axelrod.

As some of these details come out, I think it gives us a great picture of why America had a love affair with Jobs as a leader. From my standpoint those include:

1. People want a leader who is willing to “fight” – publicly.

2. People want a leader who has an opinion.  A “real” opinion and is willing to share it – publicly.

3. People want a leader who has conviction – and willing to show it – publicly.  I might not agree with his politics, but I love the fact that as a leader of an enormous company he wasn’t hiding his convictions.

Too many times we have our corporate leaders who are so “cleansed”, so “vanilla”, so p.c. that they never really say anything.  It’s why we love all these CEOs from start-up companies, they have nothing to lose.  As soon as they “make it” they go through some PR machine that turns them into nothing.  It’s one of the most sad issues companies face as they grow and become successful – the “death” of the personality of their leaders!

Can’t wait to read the full biography, fascinating personality