The Importance of Eliminating Bad Behavior That Damages Your Culture

“Ron, you know someone needs to talk to XXX because he does not know how to talk to people. He is so rude.”

The other gentleman in my office said, “you have to realize that he has worked here for seven years in HR under XXX.” That statement changed the conversation immediately.

Everyone knew that the person he mentioned was beyond difficult to work for. It was like he had a vendetta against anyone that walked through the door. So as the saying goes, the apple does not fall far from the tree.

We have all run into these type bosses in our career. If you have not, my father has a favorite saying for you — “Just keep on living.”

Learning from a bad boss

An Interview: Employee engagement built around helping employees take charge of their careers

I was honored to be interviewed by softgarden, the Germany based e-recruiting software company on employee engagement.  Below is the interview that went live today.

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This week we caught up with Industry Expert Ronald Thomas to see what he had to say on the topic of employee engagement. In his previous Senior role at Martha Stewart Living, Ron developed a program to help employees take charge of their careers and essentially develop their own engagement by choosing the right path. We got in touch to find out more.

SOFTGARDEN:
In your recent article on TLNT you discuss how businesses can help employees develop their own engagement, do you think this is a tactic that other, smaller businesses can adopt? Is there is a danger that it could potentially harm staff retention?

Cultural Translations: HR and Life Lessons After 6 Months in the Mideast

“The logic you have based your decisions on over your lifetime is not usable here.”

Everyone sitting around the office basically agreed. But then again, we were all expatriates. The conversation was centered on the processes and procedures that we had built our career on.

We were used to making snap decision and were also proud of the fact that we were decisive. We were used to digging for root cause and trying to fix things so that the problem would not happen again. We were used to analyzing process and determine where the bottlenecks were, and then fix them.

A great deal of the time, however, that does not translate across cultures.

Cultural translation does not always translate

A Game-Changing Conversation: Why You Really Need to Return That Call

“I heard from XXXX last week. Yes, I talked to him last week also, and he told me you did not return his call.”

Like a lot of you, I have friends who are still clawing back from the near economic collapse. During that era, I was in the publishing business which was (and still is) being decimated by the digital era.

Business disruptors have this effect on industry. A lot of people get thrown overboard as companies try to find the rudder to steady the ship.

And those people are our friends, families and co-workers. Some of us, on the other hand, were a bit more nimble and able to hang on, and like an acrobat, landed at the right spot at the right time. We could also have been among the ones that faltered, but we were able to brush ourselves off and get back on track.

Life is a two-way street

This post is dedicated to both. Last week was a tough one for me. One of my dear friends from my days at Martha Stewart died

“Industry Experience Required” Is a Mindset We Need to Get Out Of

“Industry experience required. Industry experience preferred.”

When I see these type of requirements listed in a job ad, they cause my eyes to glaze over.

I have had friends call and ask, “do you think I should apply if it says this?” My response is that clicking submit only takes a few seconds.

But maybe, there is a SMART recruiter out there who will ignore that ridiculous screening requirement and will instead look for talented people from other industries.

A sign that you just don’t get the “talent thing”

Brand Blindness: When Companies Don’t Engage Customers or Employees

“I do not want to post it now because I will have over a thousand resumes before the end of the day. I normally post them as I leave for the day and deal with it tomorrow.”

That was a statement one of our recruiters told me after coming out of a meeting during my tenure at Martha Stewart Living. I thought of that this week when I read the story about Yahoo now getting more than 12,000 resumes a week.

That is such an important metric about branding. I had someone contact me after I left Martha Stewart and wanted to pay me as a consultant to help her get an interview. She felt that if she got in the door, she would be able to sell herself.

I politely declined. She was so enthralled with the brand that I had to spend some time walking her back from the throes of brand blindness.

Brand perception and working within a brand are two different things. Potential candidates, however, buy a slice of the brand and assume that working someplace that is a “brand” will equate to their perception of the brand. Since my career was based in New York City, and I had a strong Rolodex, [pre-LinkedIn], I was always being approached by people who wanted intros to HR folks so they could get that interview with their favorite brand.

Clamoring to get in the door

Having the Passion to Keep Holding On to Your Dream

Would you hold on to a dream for 40 years?

“Hungry for that life message of never, ever give up… and I didn’t.”

Those words came through so eloquently from Diana Nyad.

East Coast evening news broadcasts come on here in Saudi Arabia the following morning. So when I heard this quote, I was having my coffee and scanning email.I immediately stopped and looked up.

Then I heard those most famous words that framed my day and made me refocus. “Never, ever give up!” When I got to work, I printed those words out in 72 point type. When I got home, I placed them strategically throughout the house I live in. Those words rekindled my thought process and put me in another frame of mind.

Harden our resolve — or soften our determination

Build Your Own Talent and Reap the Benefits

This article appeared in People and Management Magazine September-October issue.  I will become a monthly columnist writing articles centered around Organizations, People & Talent.

Succession planning is always unfairly coupled with the executive suite. When we think of the word, we right away envision a pool being groomed for the C-Level. Succession planning must be permeated throughout the organisation. From the marketing manager to EVP/CMO, every new hire must be looked at through the lens of replacement


What do Proctor & Gamble, JC Penny, Best Buys and Xerox have in common? They all have had recycled CEO’s. The wunderking that was at the throne was replaced by the prior wunderking! Now tell me what is wrong with that picture. Where is or was the strategy succession? So if the plan did not work, why and more importantly what are you going to do about it?

However, there have been instances of success when this model has been used so it is not always a total disaster. The most famous examples include Steve Jobs at Apple and Howard Schultz at Starbucks who came back riding to the rescue, cape & all and saved their company from the grips of decline.

How could this be? Succession planning as an organisational tool has been around for decades. How could these major companies not have a talent marketplace in place? Why would they go back to the tried and true especially in this era of innovation?

Burnout on the Job: You Own It and Only You Can Fix It

“I am done!” Background: A few years out of college, into their second job, dislikes job and abusive work environment.

“I am just going through the motions.” Background: Baby Boomer, laid off but just bounced back, hates to get up every morning. Wants to get out but can’t.

“I am so over this job.” Background: Gen X, 10-12 years out of college. Multiple promotions. Very successful for her age with lots of responsibility, but wants to do something else. Does not know what “something else” is.

This is just a sampling of the emails and texts that I have received from friends over the past few weeks. They are all at different stages of their career, but what I am noticing is that there are very few people that I know who are at “career nirvana.”

Is there anyone out there who really loves what they are doing?

Stages of burnout