Check out the my advice for the Big Three

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With all the layoffs and rumors wreaking havoc on retention policies you might think that hiring good people just got easier.

It didn’t.

With hundreds of responses to every ad, this is the time when your hiring skill really matters; when your ability to recognize jewels where others see only lumps of coal will give you an edge.

Whether the talent market is tight or loose, you should always remember that your next top performer didn’t necessarily

• have the best grades;
• attend a prestigious school;
• work for your competitor or
• even in your industry;
• have a full head of hair that has no gray; or
• fit easily into your comfort zone.

What you want is the person who ‘fits’ your corporate culture, has a great attitude and fills the skills hole in your group—in that order.

One result of hiring talent instead of skills is loyalty.

Real loyalty can’t be bought with either money or stock options, it’s earned through your actions, your willingness to take a chance, to provide the place where the coal has the opportunity to become a diamond.

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First up today is a review from Knowledge @ Wharton Of Dov Seidman’s HOW: Why How We Do Anything Means Everything … in Business (and in Life). The book focuses on building a corporate culture where “”how” matters more than “what” in business, and how “should” matters more than “can.”" Seidman believes that “companies and their people can operate in both a principled and profitable way.” He believes that “A leading company should be a company of leaders.”

Next, and interesting interview on IT World with CIO Tony Scott who is charged with creating a culture of innovation a la Google at Microsoft—wow, talk about a challenge!

Third, a look at Charles Liang, co-founder and chief executive of $600 million Super Micro Computer, a 15-year-old computer maker with 850 employees. Liang is a one-man management band, so the big question is what happens if he goes poof?

Finally, from Business Week, the opportunity to nominate your choice for the best—or worst—Manager of the Year. The worst category offers the most opportunity, but for a greater challenge think about who deserves best. Please share your nominations here, too.

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Jim Gordon shares his own view of the world here every Sunday. Today is the first of three holiday specials sure to tickle your funny bone and add to your fun. See all mY generation posts here.

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Bloggers know that coming up with interesting topics and original content every day, as opposed to big blocks of quotes from articles and other blogs, is difficult. Writing for Saturday is especially challenging because you never really know who is cruising around or what the mood is.

Additionally, I’m always finding interesting articles I want to share, but they don’t really “fit,” so I’ve decided to offer up those odd thoughts and links on Saturday; hopefully finding at least one thing to pique your interest.

• In my (probably) final comment on this subject I’d like to offer up my congratulations to all those Alaskans who put ethics in front of tradition and ousted Ted Stevens from his Senate seat. The Senate thanks them, too, since now they don’t have to choose between honoring ethics or doing business as usual.

• An interesting post on the problems for women in IT with links to several additional articles and posts. The problems for women in technical fields such as IT are myriad. Few women ever have to worry about the glass ceiling, since they rarely rise that far. Rather think about the glass floor and non-existent elevator; the former prevents entry for most and the latter sees to it that the ceiling remains out of reach to the few who pass the first barrier.

• From the NY Times an advisory on avoiding the ads that inundate you at every turn and every milieu. Lots of useful links to help you and some great final advice that I live by.

• New software from MIT’s Dr. Alex Pentland offers a future promise of a way to analyze your everyday chat to determine the unspoken thoughts that lurk behind the words. The potential improvement in interpersonal communication could be enormous.

That’s it for this Saturday. Please let me know if you like this feature or it should be sent back from whence it came.

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Yesterday I mentioned four basic traits of good culture. Today I want to talk about another one that many people, especially those running startups and small companies, often don’t like and don’t implement.

Process.

The problem is that people frequently confuse process and bureaucracy.

• Process is good—it helps to get things done smoothly and efficiently.

• Bureaucracy is bad—it’s process calcified, convoluted, politically corrupted, or just plain unnecessary.

The hallmarks of good process are

• easy-to-use and flexible method of accomplishing various business functions; and
• informal without being haphazard, and neither ambiguous or confusing.

Occasional surveys (internally asking staff and externally asking vendors and customers how things are working) alert you to when processes start to mutate. By creating a skeletal process and a corresponding graphic in areas where it is needed (financial controls, hiring, purchasing, etc.), you lay the framework for your growth in the future, no matter how hectic.

Bureaucracy stems from people, be it a CEO or first level supervisor, who believes that her staff is so incompetent that it is necessary to spell out exactly how every individual action, no matter how small, needs to be done.

To correct this, the manager responsible must

• must recognize and take responsibility;
• reduce his own insecurity;
• increase his belief in his current staff; and whenever possible
• hire people he thinks are smarter than himself!

Bureaucracy is also fed by people’s fear of change, “We’ve always done it like that.” and similar comments are dead giveaways.

Another significant factor that contributes to unnecessary bureaucracy is the failure to align responsibility and authority.

If a person has the responsibility to get something done (design a product, create a Human Resources department, meet a sales quota), she should have enough authority (spend money, hire people, negotiate with outside vendors) to get the job done.

Giving people responsibility without concomitant authority forces them to constantly ask their superiors for permission, thus reducing productivity, and lowering moral.

The final, and most important difference between process and bureaucracy is that people like working for companies with good process in place, and hate working for those mired in bureaucracy.

But not for long—they leave—making bureaucracy-eradication a major tool in the culture and retention game.

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A lot has changed since I started RampUp Solutions a decade ago. Back then, getting a CEO to discuss corporate culture ranged from difficult to impossible in direct proportion to the size of the company.

Bosses often viewed culture as an abstract concept, a creation of consultants to increase billable hours, but not something that would/could impact on the bottom line.

But that was then, this is now.

“82 per cent of [Canadian] executives surveyed said culture has a strong, or very strong, impact on their company’s performance.”

Meanwhile, in the lower 48, from a new study on innovation, “Corporate culture is, above all, the most important factor in driving innovation,” said Rajesh Chandy, a professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management and a charter member of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Advisory Committee on Measuring Innovation in the 21st Century Economy”

Innovation and healthy bottom lines go hand in hand. While innovation may not be the quick bottom line fix that layoffs and other cost cutting actions are, it is the preferred choice of CEOs who understand that surviving isn’t enough.

What weight do other factors have in driving innovation?

“…among traditional drivers of innovation such as government policy, labor, capital and culture at the country level, the strongest driver of radical innovation across nations is corporate culture.”

Chandy goes on to say, “It is important to realize that all innovative companies look alike. They share a common culture no matter where they are located.”

Nearly three years ago I wrote about what people want and don’t want and it hasn’t changed much, if at all.

There are many cultural traits to consider, but here are the four basics that are required, although the words used to describe them keep changing, if you want to foster a culture of innovation.

• Open, honest, constant communications
• Never kill the messenger
• Accept and act on input from all levels
• Walk your talk

And the next time someone tells you that corporate culture is a myth composed of smoke and mirrors, remind them that there are still people out there who believe the Earth is flat.

Click for a direct download of “Radical Innovation in Firms Across Nations: The Pre-eminence of Corporate Culture.”

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Dave Zinger wrote a post on employee DISengagement, saying that it doesn’t exist; that it isn’t the employees who are disengaged, rather it’s the organization’s responsibility to engage them and he’s right on the money.

Engagement isn’t something that happens by accident or that you can order your people to do.

Engagement happens because you, and hopefully your company are engaging.

This isn’t doubletalk or smoke, think about it. Think about what engages you.

• The guideline is the same thread that has run through every major philosophy and religion for thousands of years—treat your people s you want to be treated, whether your boss treats you that way or not.

• Authenticity is the current buzz word, but it translates simply to be honest, open and do what you say; never fudge, let alone lie, intentionally or otherwise.

• There are absolutely no circumstances that warrant or excuse the messenger being killed. None. Because if you do, there’s no going back—ever.

• If your company doesn’t have an engaging culture then you must be an umbrella for your people, because you can create one below you, even if you can’t change it above.

Organizational engagement is cultural and we’ll be talking more about it this week.

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Employee engagement is a hot topic these days; it’s also a function of corporate culture. And while managers may not be able to control culture there are many things they can do within their own department and even team.

One of the biggest is to show your appreciation of your people. Study after study confirms employees’ desire to feel valued; to make a difference and be credited for it. But how, with budgets cut below bone level?

Here are four simple actions that you can implement at no financial cost and that don’t require approval from anyone.

• Ask everyone, not just your so-called stars, for input, ideas, suggestions and opinions.

• Listen and really hear the response, discuss it, think about it.

• Use what you get as often as possible, whether in whole or in part, or as the springboard that leads to something totally different.

• Credit the source(s), both up and down, publicly and privately, thank them, compliment them, congratulate them.

If you’re sincere, you can’t lay it on too thick; if you’re faking it, they’ll know.

And if you’re foolish enough to steal the credit for yourself in the mistaken name of job security you’ll have the fun of explaining to your boss the plummeting productivity and soaring turnover that accompanies those thefts.

It’s easy to remember, just think ALUC.

Ask

Listen!

Use

Credit

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Jim Stroup over at Managing Leadership wrote a fascinating post on the effects of principles and political compromise on our Constitution.

For the political slant click the link, but I think that these ideas are just as true in the business world.

“If you rule out compromising your principles, then you become an ideologue.”

Can business people be ideologues? Of course.

Managers adopt approaches and then rigidly try to implement (inflict?) them on every organization in which they work with no consideration as to their appropriateness.

Robert Nardelli did that when he tried to impose stringent metrics a la GE on Home Depot, ignoring cultural differences and the realities of running a successful consumer business.

“…maybe they see a higher, joint goal of sufficient value… This sometimes takes a kind of discipline, stamina, and focus that can be stunning, and much more productive, powerful, and enduring…”

When senior managers open themselves up to input from all levels of their organization—instead of forcing the dogmatic use a certain methodology—the results include stronger engagement, higher productivity and more innovation.

In business, this means a focus beyond today’s stock price—a focus on the long-term, which is rarely appreciated by Wall Street.

Compromise isn’t synonymous with ethical lapse, either; it’s not an excuse to lie, cheat, steal or fudge the information or the numbers.

It is about listening to others; listening to those whose ideas are revolutionary; ideas that are atypical; ideas that buck the norm and go in a new direction and that takes a lot of guts.

In business, as in politics, compromise often means being willing to put your job on the line—but refusing carries the same potential cost.

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