alstin communications

The other day I was in Jake’s, my favorite new sandwich shop, and in the next booth over were four young people having lunch. For the next ten minutes I watched as they texted furiously into their phones, their shoulders hunched and eyes narrowed, not pretending for a moment that the people they went to lunch with (or the outside world) existed. I thought a lot of things that day, namely:

• How will they ever learn to have a one-on one conversation with another person?
• How will they interview for a job?
• What’s so important that they need to text right now?
• Would they notice if I stole a french fry?

I find it so ironic that as a new world of communication tools have developed, we seem to be getting really, really bad at communicating with one another. That day at Jake’s also got me thinking about human resources and communications. The advances I’ve seen in just the last few years are incredible: robust Talent Acquisition Systems, mobile apps, social networking tools like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, LinkedIn, etc., virtual events, recruiting blogs and so much more.

But maybe we all need to relax, take a breath and step back so we can see the whole canvas.

When it comes to employer marketing and communications, my advice to recruiters is to maybe focus more on WHAT you want to communicate, and less on HOW you’ll communicate that message.

Start here: What is it that you want to say, both to your employees and candidates? I know it sound head-smackingly obvious, but so many organizations blow over this process with little thought, or simply insert glib clichés (“employer of choice,” “best practices,” “Six Sigma,” “dedicated to premier quality and service,” “industry leader,” etc.)–and it always comes back to haunt them.

Don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t mean there has to be nine months of navel-gazing, 40 different employee surveys, and hundreds of meetings with management. It does mean however, that before you embrace the next great HR trend or recruitment application, you spend some time thinking about what makes you desirable (or not) as an employer, what type of people you want working for you, and what your organization’s culture is truly like. Note: You need to be honest here. For example, some companies like to proclaim that they’re “family-friendly,” which sounds nice, but if EVERYONE, from management to employees to customers knows you’re not (unless by a family you mean a dysfunctional unit with lots of animosity and hostility), you’re doomed. Try to push this false image on your audience and you’ll waste time, money, and energy while losing credibility.

Another example: many HR Departments today say their goal is to deliver a great candidate experience. Okay. But can you clearly explain what that means?  How will you show it to the next candidate who applies? How will you measure it? To do it right, you’ll have to get into thornier questions like: How can we possibly deliver a great candidate experience when we’re understaffed now and we get 5000 applications a month?

It’s the same with recruitment communications. Who cares if with two taps on your mighty iPhone you can post a job in 16 different places if all that appears is a boilerplated, outdated job description? What’s the point of a creating a Facebook careers page if after the first month no one in your organization cares about updating it or communicating with candidates?

The truth is that there aren’t easy answers to these questions. In fact, they probably get right to the heart of your company’s culture, operations and focus. Still, it’s the message that really matters, so start with that. The tools to deliver that message will be ready when you are.

In the “that-happened-yesterday-who-cares-about-it-now” age we live in, I was really glad this article caught my eye. I’m referring to a detailed, even-handed and informed criticism of ESPN’s handling of the LeBron James trade saga, also known as “The Decision.” What made this article special was that it was written by one of their own: Don Ohlmeyer, who is ESPN’s official “Ombudsman.” The link is here, and I strongly encourage you to read it. You’ll find that Ohlmeyer is very critical (as I think he was right to be) about ESPN’s handling of The Decision and pulls no punches when it comes to the network’s numerous mistakes and serious journalistic integrity lapses leading up to, and during, the over-hyped event.

What makes for a good ombudsman like Ohlmeyer? The definition of an ombudsman is one “who investigates complaints and mediates fair settlements,” but I think it of more as a “tell it like it is person,” someone who is immune from—or above—any influence or corruption from the organization he comments on. No killing the messenger here, this person is expected to speak the truth without corporate-speak, prejudice or fear of retribution. When it works, when the person is truly impartial, and truly free to say what he or she wants, it’s great. I actually think more highly of ESPN as an organization for having someone like Ohlmeyer as an ombudsman—though do I think his piece deserved more prominent placement on the ESPN website.

How about in the corporate world? In my opinion, a good ombudsman is something a CEO would covet, as a strong leader wants honest feedback but very often doesn’t receive it, hearing mostly from yes-men or having to work with watered-down, distorted information. A report in SHRM states that a corporate ombudsman is still a rather rare commodity. I think that’s unfortunate, especially with large corporations, as a good ombudsman can give voice to employees or a community that wouldn’t normally have access to top management. Some companies set up an ombudsman program as a result of a legal ruling but SHRM claims most organizations create them voluntarily. If you’re thinking what I’m thinking, the answer if yes, BP does have an ombudsman.

The danger of a corporate ombudsman program? If the person in that role is simply there for show, serves as a mouthpiece for top management, can’t speak freely or faces retribution, that’s worse than having no program at all. Many media and news outlets have had an ombudsman for decades, and it’s always been considered a very important position in a one-newspaper city, or a place where a single media outlet dominates the news dissemination for a region.

Does your company have an ombudsman, be it official or unofficial? Do your employees know about this person and how are his/her comments communicated? What would you say to your CEO if you were appointed the role of ombudsman?

Did you ever see the old Twilight Zone episode The Eye of the Beholder? It’s a classic. The episode is set in a hospital and is focused on a woman whose face is completely bandaged. The doctors and nurses talk in hushed voices about this being her 11th procedure to help her look “normal.” You never see their faces either until the dramatic climax. The bandages are removed revealing a very pretty woman, however the medical staff’s reaction is one of horror – and we are ultimately horrified when we get a load of them. The hospital staff is revealed and they all have crazy pig snout noses and very disfigured and disturbing faces.

The episode concludes with these words:

Now the questions that come to mind. Where is this place and when is it? What kind of world where ugliness is the norm and beauty the deviation from that norm? You want an answer? The answer is, it doesn’t make any difference. Because the old saying happens to be true: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, in this year or a hundred years hence, on this planet or wherever there is human life, perhaps out amongst the stars. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. A lesson to be learned— in The Twilight Zone.

So what happens when the eye of the beholder is a recruiter? A beautiful resume doesn’t always land a candidate a job. We all have heard and experienced first hand – whether on a job hunt or in hiring mode – that that an engaging smile, firm handshake and tasteful clothing matter for that critical first impression. However, how much does beauty really matter when a candidate walks through the door?

NEWSWEEK recently surveyed hiring managers and job seekers about the role of beauty in the workplace. The results? Looks matter. Do you agree with these findings? Be sure to let us know.

54% of hiring managers advised spending as much time and money on looking good as perfecting a resume.

Two thirds of business managers said they believe some managers would hesitate before hiring a qualified job candidate who was significantly overweight.

64% of hiring managers said they believe companies should be allowed to hire people based on looks when the job requires an employee to be the “face” of a company at retail stores or in sales.

57% of hiring managers believe the unattractive have it harder at work; while 68% believe that looks impact the way managers rate job performance.

47% of all hiring managers said that they believe some women are penalized for being too good-looking in the office.

Social media has been a game changer. It’s made us rethink how we like our news delivered. How we prefer to communicate with each other. And how we portray ourselves to the world. Personal brands are no longer resigned to the famous.

For many of us our personal brands are connected to our professional identities. For example, my handle on Twitter is @AnnetteatAlstin. I use Twitter to share happenings at Alstin, links back to this blog, contests we’re running and all around interesting HR or social media news I come across. Sometimes though, that can be a little monotonous. I tweet more personal sidebars about my comings and goings at work too — a great restaurant I tried in Center City for lunch, a funny video, or being stuck on a late Septa train. It all needs to be pretty innocuous stuff because these tweets are not all about me, it’s all about me at Alstin.

Read this tweet from former CNN Senior Editor of Mideast Affaris, Octavia Nasr who was using this Twitter handle, @OctaviaNasrCNN:

Nasr, who invested 20 years of her career at CNN, was ultimately fired for her tweet about Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah who has been described by the AP as, “staunchly anti-American and linked to bombings that killed more than 260 Americans.”

After her firing Nasr posted an explanation, apology and remorse for her tweet saying:

It was an error of judgment for me to write such a simplistic comment and I’m sorry because it conveyed that I supported Fadlallah’s life’s work. That’s not the case at all. It’s something I deeply regret.

Her firing has been controversial. Stephen M. Walt, a professor of International Relations at Harvard Kennedy School, pointed out in an editorial, “plenty of American journalists and politicians have shown ‘respect’  for various world figures with hands far bloodier … but it didn’t cost them their jobs.”

Thinking back on my blog discussing  the ”Cisco Fatty” tweet and the importance social media policies (and common sense), my first question on all this was:  What are CNN’s social media guidelines for employees?

 So I Googled, found their policy and it reads:

Don’t list preferences regarding political parties or newsmakers that are the subject of CNN reporting. Unless given permission to comment publicly on the issues or people we report on as a CNN analyst or commentator, it is important that you and all other CNN employees be independent and objective regarding the news and people that we cover. If you publicly declare your preference for issues or candidates or one side or the other of the public policy issues CNN reports on, then your ability to be viewed as objective is compromised.

With the delicate balance of reporting in the Middle East, it seems that Nasr is correct in copping to making an error in judgment. Even with very clear social media policies, I don’t think we’ve seen the first or the last of these sort of firings in the forseable future. We are human after all. In the mean time though, please, whatever you do,  don’t follow any of these examples.

Employment-at-will, the HR law of the land in most states, is often cited as follows: “The employer is free to discharge individuals for good cause, or bad cause, or no cause at all and the employee is equally free to quit, strike, or otherwise cease work.”

There are a lot of other definitions and summaries, but the one that always stuck in my head is, “You can be fired for a good reason, a bad reason or no reason, just not an illegal reason.”

I remember when I first started working in the industry—I thought: Really? The law says it’s okay to be fired for a bad reason? Even NO reason? Like after 50 years of employment I could be fired because I have on a yellow shirt that day and my boss hates yellow? I could be fired because they can’t stand the sound of my voice anymore? Because if they have to look at my face one more time they’ll go crazy? I could be fired because…well, just because? What is this, a marriage? (just kidding, honey).

Of course, being fired for a shirt color or other ridiculous reason is rare, and often in these scenarios the employee will contend that these “at-will” reasons are used as a cover for an illegal dismissal. It’s not the fact that Joe has on a yellow shirt but because Joe is older and due a pension. Not because we hate the sound of Sally’s voice, but because Sally is pregnant.

Of course, under employment-at-will, the employee has the same rights. A worker is equally free to leave his job at any time, for a good reason, bad reason or no reason. In most cases, an employee can get up from his/her desk and walk out the door with no repercussions.

Obviously, so many people lost their jobs over the last few years—and yes, some because they were low performers, but I think in most cases business conditions were so awful their companies simply couldn’t afford to keep them any longer.

Now here’s a new wrinkle that’s a product of that lousy economy: I’ve read a few disturbing articles stating that because most companies are so desperate to show their customers, shareholders and vendors that their business is rebounding, some are using “creative” firings and terminations–since a round of layoffs would signal weakness when they need to project strength. If these people are not in a protected class or are not being dismissed for discriminatory/illegal reasons, they have little recourse.

My perspective? I think overall, employment-at-will makes a lot of sense, and is fair and just for both sides–but like everything involving laws or policies there are always a few groups that try to abuse the law—and we need to keep an eye on them. For now, just don’t wear your yellow shirt to work.

Okay, so Martha the HR professional dies and meets Saint Peter at the Pearly Gates.

Peter says, “Everything seems to be in order. Now we just have to show you heaven and hell and then you can make your decision where you want to go.”

Martha replies, “I can save you the trouble on that one. I want to go to heaven, of course.”

Saint Peter nods. “I understand. But we’re doing this Six Sigma thing and we have to show you both. It’s part of our new engagement process.” Being an HR pro, Martha understands.

Peter takes her in an elevator down to hell. The door opens and reveals a beautiful scene of sloping green hills with flowers everywhere, a flowing brook and birds singing. The devil, who is incredibly handsome in a tailored Armani suit, warmly welcomes her and walks her to a huge gazebo set on a hill. There she has a wonderful meal, meets many interesting people, eats some amazing food and dances the night away with the devil. All in all, she has a lovely time.

The next day Peter takes Martha in the elevator up to heaven–and it’s very nice. She floats on a cloud, sees a lot of her old friends and family members, and experiences an inner feeling of contentment and peace she’s never felt before.

When it’s all over, Peter asks for her decision.

“I know this sounds crazy,” she says. “They were both wonderful. Really. And I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think I’m going to choose hell.”

“No problem,” replies Peter.

They take the elevator down and it opens upon a scorched, arid landscape. The sky is blood red, it’s unbearably hot, there’s no water and people are screaming and writhing in pain. The devil is waiting there with a cape, horns and a maniacal laugh.

“What happened?” Martha exclaims. “I was here just two days ago. Where’s the green hills, the gazebo, the nice people, and why are you dressed like that?”

“Well,” the devil replies, “two days ago you were a candidate. Today you’re an employee.”

The point of my awful joke? In recruiting, we often spend a lot of time and money trying to communicate and engage top candidates. We think a lot about our recruitment process and our employer brand, we make sure the career portion of our website ensures a good experience and has lots of info, we travel to colleges, industry events and open houses to spread the word, we rigorously interview, test, compare candidates…and so much more.

But what happens once they’re hired? Do you make them feel as important as you did when you were wooing them? Do you communicate with them about things like company news, areas of growth, what top management is focused on, career advancement, etc.?

Your employees truly are the engine that makes your company runs. Internal branding is not just about retention, but also about the success and engagement of your employees. If it’s something you need to learn more about, drop me a line at trosato@alstin.com

Don’t let what happened to Martha happen to you. Let us help you with your internal employee brand–before it’s too late.

In 2009 93% of companies with more than 200 employees offered at least one wellness program within their health benefits. (That’s up more than 88% from 2008.) Out of those companies surveyed by The Kaiser Family Foundation, 63% thought that their wellness programs improved employee health and about half thought they reduced costs.

The American Heart Association also recently sent out a policy statement on workplace wellness  that claims, “Research shows that companies can save anywhere from $3 to $15 for every $1 spent on health and wellness within 12 to 18 months of implementing a workplace wellness program.”

The American Heart Association went on to detail several of the most typically successful wellness programs including, but not limited to, these:

• Weight management
• Stress management/reduction
• Early detection/screening
• Work environment changes that encourage healthy behaviors and promote occupational health and safety

However, the Association also noted that 60% of employees said the economy has affected their ability to take care of their health, just adding one more reason to skip a trip to the dentist or cancel a gym membership.

So how do employers mobilize their employees to participate in these programs? USA Today reported  that IBM offers a $300 rebate for participation. IBM also had the Health Management Research Center at the University of Michigan analyze their wellness program efforts and impact. According to IBM’s Director of Well-being (how’s that for a title?), their wellness initiatives resulted in $80 million in reduced health claims.

A different approach, but a financial incentive nonetheless, PepsiCo introduced a $600 surcharge for smokers. That resulted in a tenfold increase in participation in their smoking-cessation program. (The quit rate was 34%.)

Wellness isn’t just about helping workers shed pounds or to finally kick their smoking habit to the curb. For large and small organizations, it is very important to remember that the way employees are managed affects their well-being. Offering flexibility to a great employee dealing with a difficult personal issue, or showing in small ways that you really care also falls under wellness (and being a decent human being).

I will leave you with an except from the book Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements by Tom Rath and Jim Harter. It provides plenty of food for thought and a perspective that, I for one, find hard to argue with:

“ … the most progressive leaders not only understand that they are in the business of boosting their employees’ wellbeing, but they also use this knowledge as a competitive advantage to recruit and retain employees. They know it will be easier to attract top talent if they can show a prospective employee how working for the organization will translate into better relationships, more financial security, improved physical health, and more involvement in the community.

Leaders can’t just tell employees that they care about their well-being. They have to take action if they want to see results. And this requires continual measurement and follow-up to help workers manage their wellbeing over time. Just as the most successful organizations have worked systemically to optimize their levels of employee engagement, they are now turning their attention to employee wellbeing as a way to gain an emotional, financial, and competitive advantage.”

Laptops. Netbooks. iPhones. Blackberrys. Smart Phones. Mobile Devices. WiFi. Broadband. 3G. 4G. Mobile Broadband. The list of technological advances of the past 10 years is mind-boggling. It also means most office workers are connected to their jobs 24/7. The efficiencies we’ve gained IN the office mean we have more work to do OUT of the office. It may be one of the hidden reasons why worker productivity continues to rise while employee counts drop. 

As more and more of us work from home on our days “off” and telecommuting becomes more popular, it’s interesting to note that not being seen in the office can have a detrimental effect on your career. 

According to a recent article in the Sacramento Business Journal, the University of California Davis conducted the first-ever academic study of “passive” face time – when workers are seen in the office without any interaction. They found that bosses think more favorably of employees who are present. 

“Merely being seen – often from a distance and without any interaction or real understanding of what a person is doing – that in itself has value,” Professor Kimberly Elsbach says. “People notice.”

Workers who telecommute or have flexible hours often focus on quick and constant communication via phone or text messages. Others send e-mail late at night to show their dedication. But if you’re a telecommuter it pays to periodically come into the office–to see and to be seen because researchers have also found that face time has a direct, and sometimes unconscious, effect on how managers view employees. 

Career mobility still hinges on working hard, working smart and reviewing accomplishments with superiors. But even with all new technologies swirling around us, it seems that in 2010 good old face time still carries much weight when being evaluated in the workplace.

Memorial Day, a federal holiday celebrated in the United States on the last Monday in May to commemorate the men and women who have given their lives in military service to our country, has gained more significance in recent years for many of us. Our country is now fighting two wars overseas and more than quarter of the military consists of the National Guard and Reserves. Due to the downturn in the economy many of these men and women have returned home to find their employers closed and their jobs gone. In conjunction with Memorial Day, I am writing this blog post with the help of Rick Jones from RecruitMilitary on the benefits of hiring veterans.

Rick Jones is a 24-year Veteran of the US Marine Corps. He retired in 2006 and currently works as the Director of Sales for RecruitMilitary.

RecruitMilitary is a veteran-owned, veteran-operated, and veteran-advised. All of the account executives and search consultants are either veterans or active or former reservists

Theresa Hastings: Does the military have jobs that are compatible with civilian jobs?

Rick Jones: Yes it does. The Department of Defense (DOD) trains thousands of new military members in their specialty (Military Occupational Skill) during their first year of service. This adds up to thousands of skill sets in communications, information technology and many of the healthcare fields, which cross over into the civilian community with little or no training at all.

TH: How does military training transfer into experience for a civilian job?

RJ: After a service member completes their tour of duty, which may range anywhere from 3 to 6 years to over 20, that person has accumulated quite a bit of experience in their specialty and also factor in the conditions in which they have worked, this should qualify them for multiple opportunities in various disciplines. They often deal with deadlines and stressful conditions that could be of importance to our National Security.

TH: In your opinion what will an employer gain by hiring a veteran?

RJ: Employers will get the best of what this country has to offer. Our military members today have some of the best training in the world and do their jobs in conditions that most people couldn’t imagine. They have worked hard protecting us; don’t we owe them a chance at a new career?

Say you are a recruiter. A real good one. A recruiter that uses a wide variety of tools to recruit candidates on behalf of your employer. You’ve built quite a network, particularly on LinkedIn. Hundreds of connections are now at your disposal thanks to this service and thanks to your efforts.

Your efforts don’t go unnoticed. You get offered another career opportunity in recruiting. It’s a great one. A no-brainer and you take it thinking: Wow, I’m all set. And just look at this virtual Rolodex I’ve created. All my LinkedIn contacts are not for nothing. What a great foundation for me to use in my next super-awesome recruiting job. Yippie!

Hold up. Your soon to be former employer might have something to say about how you go about using your LinkedIn network.

I’ve tackled this question quite a bit from clients and friends in the recruiting world and I’ve always answered it this way. Your profile is yours. Your connections are yours. However, have you signed a non-compete agreement? If you have, be sure to follow its protocol or you could land yourself in a lawsuit.

That’s just what seems to have happened to Brelyn Hammernik. She’s a technical recruiter who was sued by her former employer TEKsystems. Both Hammernik and her current employer (yikes!), Horizontal Integrations, are named in the lawsuit.

If you have signed a non-compete and move on to a competitor will you (should you?) remove those from your connections for ultimate compliance? What sort of LinkedIn correspondence actually is a solicitation vs. a status update? This suit is one of the first cases that will set these sort of precedents when it comes to social networking and non-competes.

It was correspondence like this that got Brelyn Hammernik into hot water:

“Tom – Hey! Let me know if you are still looking for opportunities! I would love to have you come visit my new office and hear about some of the stuff we are working on! Let me know your thoughts! Brelyn”

Tip #1 – When you sign a non-compete, don’t send messages like these to your former clients and co-workers.

Tip #2 – If you have signed a non-compete and are moving on to a competitor for a new position, dust that thing off before you go off into the sunset. Read it. And make sure you ask questions on terms and conditions that seem questionable.

Tip # 3 – Want more on the legalites? Be sure to check out Rob Radcliff’s blog SmoothTransitions. He’s a Dallas,TX attorney specializing in such cases and offers a wealth of advice and information for employers and employees alike.

Five years ago with the invitation to “broadcast yourself,” YouTube launched on the web. Google (which owns YouTube by the way) in celebration of YouTube turning five this month announced that the site gets 2 billion views a day. A day!!!

Viral videos on the site have made people rich, famous, certainly laugh and even learn through countless how-to videos.

Here are some facts:

• It’s the third most visited website in the world (Alexa)
• There are local versions in 23 countries and in 24 different languages
• It gets 24 hours of uploaded video every minute
• You would need to have about 1,700 years on your hands to watch every single one of its hundreds of millions of video clips now on the site
• Lady Gaga “Bad Romance” is YouTube’s most viewed video of all time, with (at this writing) 206,604,999 views (That one really reminded me that I am fast approaching my fourth decade on the planet.)

Some stories are best done visually, so it is no surprise that YouTube is now part of our daily vocabulary and part of how we communicate with each other. So, as a recruiter, think about how you are currently communicating to people about what it’s like to work for your organization? Or for that matter, what it actually means to be an employee where you work? I know that there’s some pretty compelling stuff that can come out of answering those two questions. Compelling stuff that can be made into a video that you can load onto YouTube, embed on your career web page or recruiting blog, job postings, you name it. (Remember, YouTube is the second largest search engine - people are also looking up “your company story” here too.) The link to that video can also be included in every email you send to candidates and prospects. You can even embed a YouTube video on a SlideShare and add it to your LinkedIn profile. View my full LinkedIn profile (and connect with me while you’re at it!) to see what I mean.

A video much in the style of this one, that doesn’t technically involve any video being shot I want to add, can be developed to communicate your employer brand. This one we developed to showcase some branding work we’ve done is now playing on Alstin’s YouTube channel. Think of how valuable a cost-effective tool like this could be for you. Want to learn more or discuss a bit further? Watch the clip and be sure to drop me a line here, or email me at blog@alstin.com.

Like many readers of our blog, I spend a lot of time trying to learn more about recruiting and employee communications. I dig down to theories about best practices, study metrics and analytics, subscribe to a slew of newsletters, articles and LinkedIn groups, read white papers, follow recruiting professionals on Twitter, and I’m always talking to industry colleagues about what’s new and what’s working in human resources.

Sometimes however, I think it’s good to step back and try to see how the outside world views our industry. When I came across an article from smartmoney.com titled, “10 Things HR Won’t Say,” I was intrigued by the idea of getting an outsider’s perspective–and when I read in the first paragraph an explanation of what SHRM is–I knew I came to the right place.

I don’t believe there’s anything earth-shattering in the essay, but I was pleasantly surprised that the article, instead of being a diatribe about how evil HR people stop you from getting the job you deserve, spoke to some of the challenges HR people face in their daily work. Still, I did bristle at some of the blanket generalizations (ex. “We love tests.” Really? In almost 20 years of working in the industry, I’ve yet to hear an HR pro utter anything like that about employee testing.)

What I WOULD love is for our readers, especially those in HR, to comment on the article. Is an article like this good PR for the profession or does it continue to perpetuate stereotypes? Let me know your thoughts!

Good leaders are good listeners. They are of the sort that actively seek out feedback from the team, act on the good stuff, try to resolve the bad stuff and recognize that great ideas sometimes do indeed sprout from where you may least expect it.

Get some feedback on the behavioral economics of your workforce – the cognitive, emotional and social dynamics that drive the people behind your company. I can guarantee that for anyone in HR it will be a worthwhile effort. It can lead to a greater understanding of the whole and real discoveries on better ways to do business, collaborate, share ideas, lead a team … the list of pros really could go on and on. Jim Clifton, Chairman and CEO of Gallup, sums up the how and why of this approach to leadership rather nicely:

It’s about understanding and managing ideas and talent — and states of mind. That’s where the new leadership breakthroughs will be. Leaders who can quantify states of mind and make decisions about their constituencies based on that information are the ones who will lead the world.

Right on Clifton! In my mind there’s no doubt that gaining a better understanding of employees’ states of mind will ultimately provide a true  state of the union.

So when I saw a preview for a new reality TV show that’s set to air on CBS this Super Bowl Sunday – stay with me here, reality TV is not my thing either – I thought back on Clifton’s words which continue to ring true.

The show is called Undercover Boss. CBS’s official spin on the show reads:

Each week a different executive will leave the comfort of their corner office for an undercover mission to examine the inner workings of their company. While working alongside their employees, they will see the effects their decisions have on others, where the problems lie within their organization and get an up-close look at both the good and the bad while discovering the unsung heroes who make their company run.

The preview tells me that this show just might be worth a watch (at least for the first episode) … and that I continue to be easily verklepmt:

In the end Larry O’Donnell, President and COO of Waste Management, found a “whole new appreciation” for his employees and that he planned to change the way he went about doing his own job. That’s a good thing. Coffee cans are meant to store coffee and later on, maybe some loose change.

Be inspired by how your team makes things work at work and in their daily lives. I can guarantee that you will likely marvel at the discoveries.