When It Comes to Successfully Leading People, Soft Skills are the Key

We had two very distinct corporate headquarters and now we just have one. At our corporate office in

Boston, the doors were locked on the executive floor and you couldn’t get in with your badge unless you worked on that floor.

Now everyone’s badge works on the floor. I also moved the coffee machine outside my door so people had to walk by my office to get to it. Now I can tell people to stop in and say Hi.”

That statement was from CEO Linda K. Zecher of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. She was recently profiled by Adam Bryant in his weekly interview series, Corner Office in The New York Times.

By the way, this weekly article allows you to peep through the crack of the C-Suite. It is a must read for HR professionals who are looking for insight from senior leadership and their thought processes.

A different scenario, indeed

However, as I read about this one with Linda Zecher I thought of my own experience and it was diametrically opposed to her version. In my version, the new CEO comes in and immediately re-launches what was a normal floor where everyone roamed into an “executive floor.”

Good Times or Bad, Everyone is Watching What Management is Doing

“In the end, I want to know that the next paycheck is coming. Everything else is secondary.”

I thought of that statement from an employee who was afraid that they could be laid off.

When I read about Hewlett-Packard’s impending layoff of 27,000 plus employees, I had a flash back. The subtitle of this announcement was that this would produce cost savings of $3.5 billion.

Plan for the survivors-ALWAYS

3 Steps to Help You Own Up When You Make The Big Mistake

“We know we were sloppy. We know we were stupid. We know there was bad judgment. We don’t know if any of that is true yet. Of course regulators should look at something like this, that’s their jobs. So we are totally open to regulators and they will come to their own conclusions. But we intend to fix it and learn from it.”

That statement was from CEO Jamie Dimon of JPMorganChase on taking responsibility for the massive loss of $2 billion that happened in the past six weeks.

This post will in no way attempt to even go to show how this massive amount of money was lost. But, I will go to where more leaders and managers should also go. “We” (or “I”) made a mistake is a profound statement that all of us from time to time are guilty for not having in our vocabulary. Just a few words, sincerely stated, goes a long way towards making amends.

The Lesson from Yahoo: Like It or Not, Every Manager IS a Role Model

“I am very sad to tell you that I’ve just been fired over the phone by Yahoo’s Chairman of the Board,” Carol Bartz wrote to her company’s workforce.

“These people f***** me over.”

“Why don’t you have the balls to tell me yourself?”

“The board was so spooked by being cast as the worst board in the country,” Bartz opined. “Now they’re trying to show that they’re not the doofuses that they are.”

You’re Not a Real Leader Until You Can Admit to Screwing Up

Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, said he and other managers didn’t do enough to challenge Facebook when he led the company. “I screwed up,” Schmidt said.

When I saw that statement, it was like two chest bumps. That’s what I am talking about.

There is nothing more exciting for me to see someone fess up to making a mistake. For a leader to do that, it is just awesome.

In this new era of leadership, you can never be a real leader until you pass that hurdle.

My father gave me this advice when I married right out of college. “Don’t ever be afraid to admit you made a mistake. A real man will always fess up,” he told me. My parents were married for 49 years and were in love with each other until the end.

He was always fessing up. I have had my share of doing that, too.

 

HR and Developing Talent: Just What is Your CEO Thinking?

“Criminal neglect.” “We’ve gotten way too comfortable poaching.” “No one wakes you in the morning and says they want to go work in the advertising business.”

Brash statements you might say, particularly when they refer to recruiting talent. Are these from disgruntled employees, or a managers roundtable, or maybe from focus group findings?
If you picked any of these, you would be wrong.

CEOs Critical of their own organizations

Those were statements that came from three CEO’s of the largest advertising agency holding companies.

The CEOs that made these statements:

• WPP Chief Executive Martin Sorrell: “Criminal Neglect.”
• Omnicom Group CEO John Wren: “We’ve gotten way too comfortable poaching.”
• Interpublic Group of Companies CEO John Wren: “No one wakes you in the morning and says they want to go work in the advertising business.”

HR Lessons and Trickle Down Leadership in The Devil Wears Prada

Editor’s Note: With the Academy Awards taking place Sunday, TLNT asked  some thought leaders to write about their favorite movie with a management or HR theme. We’ll feature these up to the Oscar ceremony on Feb. 27.

By Ron Thomas

“Don’t be ridiculous, everyone wants this,” Editor-in-Chief Miranda coolly stated as she rode through the beautiful streets of Paris in her chauffeur driven S Class Mercedes. The CEO stated in the elevator that “a million girls would kill for that job.”

This was the brand as they saw it in the movie “The Devil Wears Prada.” This was the brand that Andy (played by Anne Hathaway) saw and most definitely the brand that the gatekeepers in HR kept in mind when they decided who could come to interview.

This movie has HR footprints all over it, from branding, recruiting, employee engagement, management dysfunction, succession planning, leadership, mentorship. All the ills of the organization are woven through the narrative of a movie about a young college graduate getting her first job. She’s all wild eyed and eager  – until she is thrown into this sink or swim playground.

A Lesson at Time Inc: How Long Do We Keep Those Out of Touch With the Culture?

It was like a surgeon strategically wielding a scalpel taking out the organ that the body rejected.

“I concluded that his leadership style and approach did not mesh with Time Inc. and Time Warner,” Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes stated in a memo. And with that, it was over and done with.

The Chairman and CEO of Time Inc, Jack Griffin was fired on Thursday evening by Bewkes. Six months was all it took and the decision was made.

As I worked out on Friday morning, this announcement flashed across the TV screens. My reaction? Wow.

How many times as HR professionals have we seen that happen? Yes, we have seen it at lower levels but not at the top of the mountain. That does not happen very often. There have been times that you have seen employees that you would have cheered for the opportunity to wield the scalpel to, as was done over at Time.

Personal Branding: It’s All About Creating Great Footprints in Our Life

This winter has created a terrible snow situation here in the New York City metro area. There is snow everywhere.

I looked outside this morning and could see footprints of various animals walking through the snow. Their footprints were all visible showing the directions that they were headed.

As many of you who follow my blog know, my daughter recently started her first post-college job. In resigning from the two part-time jobs that she was working, she did her exit interview. She was so excited that both companies said that they would rehire her. They told her that anytime she wanted to come back part-time, they would accommodate her.

My response was “you created a great brand during your stay and you made the connection.”

It is all in the brand whether it is the organization or you personally.

I told my daughter a story about how I was invited to lunch a few months back by a very good friend Mark Winkler, AVP Circulation at Martha Stewart Living. We decided that, rather than meeting at the restaurant, I would come up to his office.

This was the first time that I had been there since I left in 2008. I was a little hesitant at first since I had been gone so long. I knew the company had gone through a lot of changes and there were a lot of new faces.
But there were still lots of people that I was looking forward to seeing. I had kept up with them by e-mail, Facebook and all the social media tools.

Creating footprints

A New Way to Engage: Are You Ready for an Organizational Pit Stop?

While sitting through a presentation by the Medici Group last Friday, one of the slides caught my eye.
Franz Johanssen, an international management consultant whose workshop helps companies innovate through the “intersection of ideas, concepts and culture,” gave a stunning presentation.

As we often do, sitting though presentations, there are times that our mind just wanders. We sometimes have so many other thoughts pushing through our space that we are there and at the same time we are not there.

The slide was the photo of a pit stop. I must confess that I am not a fan of car racing by any stretch of the imagination, but this slide really got me to thinking.

Organized mayhem 

Looking to 2011 and Beyond: “Who You Gonna Call?” Will it be to HR?

This time of year always brings out the crystal ball for psychics, bloggers, writers, and thought leaders in every profession. Well, maybe not in that order. 

I remember when I was growing up, I would always read the predictions of the psychics. I would literally keep track of who was right and who was wrong by the end of the year. The vast majority of time they were wrong, but that did not stop them from coming out the next year with a new and bold list.

Lately I have read about the changes coming in 2011 concerning social media, technology, human capital, talent management, strategic HR and the list goes on. Everyone has their take. In 2009, I wrote a piece for a career magazine on my thoughts on 2010 titled “Try to Put 2009 Behind Us, Making the Most of 2010.”

I recently reread that article and it could still stand the test of time.

Reports worth reading

In our HR space today, there has been excellent research this year that would have a psychic salivating. We don’t really need the predictions unless we have been blinded by the turmoil and stress.
Here are my favorites reports for the year:

Conventional Leadership Wisdom is Wrong – and Why We Need to Change

Last Friday, I was interviewed as part of the Executive Conversation Series at the Human Capital Institute where I serve as a member of the Expert Advisory Panel on Talent Management. We spent an amazing hour discussing the The Look of Leadership 3.0

I started my conversation with the analogy about the styles of leadership over the years: Henry Ford, Jack Welch, Steve Jobs, Eric Schmidt, Mark Zuckerberg, etc. If we were able to do a comparative graph, the styles of leadership of each of these legendary individuals and leaders the arc would be off the chart.

Each one is a masterful leader in his own right. Could Henry Ford or Jack Welch manage a workforce today with the same level of success. I personally think not. The evolution of modern leadership requires a different style from what may have been successful years ago.

The Look of Leadership 3.0-Teleconference on September 24, 2010

I will be hosting a teleconference on the new models of leadership at the Human Capital Institute on September 24, 2010 at 12 Noon

  Teleconference Airs: September 24, 2010
 

Will the leadership model  of today be successful in the future?  What changes have you seen in your career as a leader? Multi generational workforce, economic turmoil, talent turnover, closing the engagement gap are just a few of the issues facing not only HR but corporate leadership in the future.  And yet, there is a fair amount of ambiguity and anxiety concerning these impending issues headed towards organizations.  How does the HR practitioner and aspiring leader play a role in this equation?  How will senior leaders make the transition to manage this newly “empowered” workforce and reinvigorate their companies?  Will leaders become teachers, and if so, how will they learn from the up and coming generations? In the end, it is all about that most important asset that companies have given lip service to over the years.

The rubber now meets the road.  Let’s exchange strategies and successes in this conversation about taking your leadership to 3.0.

Undercover Boss and a Lesson in Leadership

Like a lot of you on Super Bowl Sunday, the game was the show to watch. My normal routine is no pregame, just enjoy the game. I do not want to sit through all the hype, recycled stories and the endless commercials. In previous years once the game was decided, I would turn off the TV and call it a day.

This year was different, because I did buy into the hype, but it was not football. The previous week I saw commercials about a new reality show called “Undercover Boss”. I have to admit that I have never watched a reality show. I have always found them to be contrived and just too much BS.

Leadership: What is the new model for the future?

While growing up, I always looked forward to the debut of new cars because the designs would change every year.  However the European models would not change drastically.  Unlike the US manufacturers, they would evolve over a few years whether it be design, safety enhancements or the latest gadgets.

It appears to me that leadership has taken on some of those traits.  I searched Amazon Books and found approximately 375,000 titles listed on the subject of leadership.  Did the great leaders of yesteryear have to update their skills yearly with the publication of a new book.