Personal Leadership Should Focus On Team Success First

Everyone has the responsibility to demonstrate personal leadership. When interacting with others, every communication tells a story of what you value, and it’s critical to model the right behaviors

Here are a few characteristics of an engaging team environment. Ask yourself how you can personally role model these characteristics with your colleagues:

1. Clear goals and commitment to team goals. How will I demonstrate enthusiasm and commitment to solving challenges as a team?

2. Accountability to the team. How will I demonstrate that I am personally invested and responsible to the team?

3. Supportive climate and behaviors. How will I acknowledge and complement other team members for their creativity and achievements?

4. Mutual trust and respect. How will I openly share my own strengths, opportunities, and best practices?  Volunteer for more peer to peer sessions.

5. Results focus. How will I reward and celebrate the achievement of specific personal and team goals?

6. Good communication and constructive conflict. How will I engage in open and passionate debate of ideas and opinions, respecting others POV and embracing diversity of viewpoints?

I am privileged to work on the Macmillan Higher Education Inside Sales team where all of these behaviors are already evident.  It’s incumbent on me to increase and enhance my level of contribution as I gain competency and trust with the team.

 

The 8 and 5 Rule for 40 Hours of Powerful Selling!

We all know 8 times 5 equals 40, but how do we make those 40 hours (and hopefully not many more), the most effective as possible?  Invest less than 3% of the time reflecting and planning.  That small investment could make a substantial difference in priorities and execution to create dramatic accomplishments.  Can you afford that time?  You can’t afford not to.

Here is what I try to do every day.  I call it the 8@Eight and 5@Five rules. Invest 5 minutes at 5:00 PM reflecting on the day and jotting down high level plans for the next day, and 8 minutes at 8:00 AM fleshing out those plans with a focus on high priority initiatives.  Don’t just show up at 8:00 AM and work whatever is in the inbox, it is not likely the tasks that will assure success for the day.  Don’t just pack up and leave at 5:00 PM without thinking of what went well that day and how to change up the process the following day.

I now work for a privately held company, but for more than 30 years working for a public company, I had a text message sent to my cell after the closing bell of the New York Stock exchange alerting me to the stock price activity for the day.  I then reflected on whether the tasks I worked that day could have had any impact on that result.  If the price went up, I tried to identify those accomplishments that contributed to the good result.  If the price went down, I searched for those activities that wasted time or were not high priority business results that might have contributed to the decline.  Since the stock price always fluctuated, there was always an opportunity for reflection one way or the other.

That got me thinking about how to repeat good results and what to do to avoid bad results.  We don’t need a stock price to make an honest assessment of the day.  One way to think about this would be to imagine you were required to send your accomplishments (or lack thereof) to the CEO every day at 5:00 PM.  Would they align with the company’s strategic direction? Would the CFO send you a thank you note?

So here’s the simple plan.  Take 5 minutes at 5:00 PM to have a plan to wake up to the next day.  Then take 8 minutes at 8:00 AM to create the project plan to execute against those ideas.  Try very hard to ignore the easy distractions: emails that don’t need an immediate response, blinking voice mail lights that have beg you to react to someone else’s poor planning, or socialization that goes beyond that needed to build culture and team work.  Try turning off email for periods of the day and work the plan.  Cover up the voice mail light with anything available and work the plan.

BTW, I am not perfect at this technique.  That’s why I am writing this blog – to coerce me to walk the walk and not just talk about it.  I have put myself on notice, hold me accountable and then try it yourself.

 

Independence Day? – Aren’t We More Dependent On Main Stream Media, Prescription drugs, and … ?

Let me declare up front that there was much to celebrate on the 4th of July, and this blog is not meant to distract from the great beginnings of this country that July 4 commemorates, and the many outstanding accomplishments that the USA can claim as our own over the past 235 years. In many ways, it’s remarkable how well the subsequent Constitution and Bill of Rights have fared over such a long period of dramatic change in the country.

We celebrate Independence Day as freedom from overt government intrusion into our lives, yet gazing back over the landscape of events and behaviors in recent years, I sense that we have allowed ourselves to become more dependent. The freedom and advances we benefit from today have come at a cost of our critical thinking skills and accepting responsibility for outcomes that effect each of us, our communities, and our nation.

I’ll touch on a few that are top of mind. You’ll likely have a different set, but these are top of mind as I write this.

• Main Stream Media – Stories That Sell Advertising Revenue Instead of Objective Informing

• Prescription Drugs Abuse

Main Stream Media

We use Main Stream Media (MSM) to educate and inform us on global and national events knowing full well that each major MSM channel has its own political and commercial (revenue) agenda. You can scan the channels any evening and hear very different “news reports” depending on whether you are watching Fox, CNN, MSNBC, or your local programming. We tune to the MSM channel that best fits our belief system and then allow the flow of information to confirm and advance those beliefs. Remember that MSM is a for-profit business, and you get what you pay for, meaning MSM will follow and report on the rubbernecking story at the expense of what events here or abroad are truly shaping our future.

I have been using the remote much more lately to scan between the major MSM channels in an attempt to triangulate on the information provided and then go off and coalesce those disparate reports such that I can make a more informed assessment of the information provided. When that isn’t enough, I’ll do more research to better understand the issue. I refuse to allow my belief system to be informed or altered by simple sound bites from the most polished, handsome, or politically biased newscasters. Be cautious when forming an opinion dependent solely on one news source, regardless of the stature it carries in MSM.

Prescription Drugs Abuse

This past April, the White House announced taking action to try to reverse what it characterizes as a growing epidemic of prescription drug abuse. A look at recent numbers demonstrates there is a ton of work ahead to reverse this problem.

• 33 million: Number of Americans aged 12 and older that the Food and Drug Administration estimates misused prescription drugs in 2007 alone. It represents an increase of 4 million from the 29 million who abused prescription drugs in 2002.

• $234.1 billion: Amount of money spent on prescription drugs in the United States in 2008 alone. This sum more than quadrupled the amount spent on prescribed medications in 1999.

• 48: Percentage of Americans who used at least one prescription drug per month from 2005 to 2008. This is a 4 percent increase from usage levels a decade ago.

• 90: Percentage of Americans aged 60 or older who have used a prescription drug in the past month. Most of these are a result of combating age-related diseases. Some are a result of doctors over-prescribing medicines.

• 20: Percentage of U.S. children who have used a prescription drug in the past month.

Just recently, four people were killed in a NY pharmacy by a person intent on gaining access to pain killers, one of the most insidious addictions that arise from the abuse of pain management in what are otherwise normal people. Parents run off and acquire antibiotics when their child develops a sniffle. Poor test grades? Try an ADD drug. Can’t cope with work or relationships? Pop a few benzodiazepines to get through the day.

Don’t get me wrong, I know there are many medically necessary prescriptions written, though I can’t help but consider how many of these have now become the new normal when dealing with pain, minor infections, or manageable stress. I’ve tried gutting it out after knee surgery and that was clearly a mistake, pain medicine was needed. But are prescription pain pills needed for what are everyday aches and pains? Minor infections have a way of running their course instead of abusing antibiotics and creating a more drug resilient bacteria. Stress seems to be the new normal for many as more work is heaped upon a “right-sized” organization. Can benzos (like Xanax) really get more work done, or are they removing the eustress we need to accomplish more in tight time frames.

That’s my two for now. You will likely have your own top two or three and someone else will have another few. There seems to be an abundance of ways to become dependent on expedient decision-making or eluding difficult issues. I’m doing my best to better understand the issues that are framing our collective future and our ability to enhance the way we go about shaping that outcome. Our personal leadership in action can translate into community and corporate leadership. There is a huge opportunity to make a difference, if we once again declare our Independence.

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EthiCorVigilance and Integriology Create an Ethical Culture and Employee Engagement

A Podcast of this blog post is available at http://bit.ly/nHlVzO

In a previous blog, Hello, I Must be Going – Employee Engagement in a Recovering Economy, I suggested some ways that management could enhance employee engagement. That discussion was focused on retention of employees that drive the success of the firm. The short list included communicating the company’s strategy and goals, developing a sense of community, recognition, and supported development plans. Click on the link above for a more detailed discussion of these topics.

EthiCorVigilance and Integriology (ECV&I) or Ethical Corporate Vigilance and Integriology (my term – study of integrity) is the practice and processes necessary to not just retain top performers; it is the defining set of ethics and values that gains the maximum benefit from these employees. Engaged employees recommend their company to friends and family and take pride in working there. They are willing to go the extra mile for their organization, making it possible for the company to do more with less. They can be counted on to make independent decisions and take action in ways that are consistent with the company’s culture, objectives, and values. They require less supervision and direction and adapt easily to changing roles and responsibilities. Employee engagement can be linked to observation of the company’s commitment to Ethical behaviors and demonstrated processes that support Ethical conduct.

In a 2009 National Business Ethics Survey from the Ethics Resource Center and the Hay Group, a key finding showed that “positive perceptions of an organization’s ethical culture are associated with higher levels of engagement. Furthermore, management’s commitment to ethics is particularly important for employee engagement”. Their key takeaway was “given the profound connection between a com¬pany’s ethical culture and employee engage¬ment, managers should work actively to demonstrate a commitment to ethics, foster open communication, promote ethical role modeling, and encourage accountability.”

Ethics are central to situations where “the right thing to do” is in question, and the outcome of the decision affects many people including employees and customers. Identifying the “right thing” is often a complex challenge that in¬volves identifying conflicting responsibilities to a wide range of stakeholders. Challenging every employee to act as ethicists and keep the company’s core values in sight provides an opportunity for each employee to see their contribution in the larger picture of the company’s public profile and brand in the marketplace. As each person experiences their unique contribution to building the company brand through ethical and value driven behaviors, employee engagement is amplified.

Some questions that every organization should grapple with are

1. Can every employee identify one or more key executives who have proven to uphold the company values?

2. Does the company have the right values in place to guide them in a difficult situation or crisis?

3. Will the company be proud of their core values if exposed to a critical public, government agency, or customer segment?

4. Which values will the extended stakeholders of the company expect in challenging or crisis situations?

It’s not enough to talk about “company culture” when a firm says that their culture is a defining competitive advantage. The company must come forth with their value statements, articulated by senior executives and board members. It must be instilled in every manager and employee through training and measurement of adherence to ethical and value driven behaviors. The growing power of social media, which provides a platform for employees to share their perspective with a wide audience, greatly amplifies employ¬ees’ impact in the marketplace, and creates both opportunity and risk. It is imperative that every employee experiences ethics and values through the consistent behaviors, decisions, and actions of every member of the leadership team.

EthiCorVigilance and Integriology (ECV&I) must be the overarching and sustainable practice for enhancing brand awareness and creating proud and passionate employees wanting nothing short of amassing competitive market success creating strong career opportunities and growth. Done well, ECV&I will create an ethical culture that indeed creates a unique competitive advantage.

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A Death in the Giro d’Italia and Corporate Social Consciousness – Compassionate Competition?

 A podcast version of this blog is available at http://bit.ly/l3F3dd

Cyclist Wouter Weylandt died after a crash on a mountain decent in Stage 3 of the Giro d’Italia.  I imagine that many reading this blog will wonder why this is the lead paragraph in an otherwise business blog.  What happened next in the Giro should be what we expect from our corporate behaviors.  Allow me to set the stage for our collective reflection with a few important facts about the event.

• The Giro d’Italia is one of three Grand Tours of cycling. 
• There are 21 stages over 23 days totaling 2189 miles.
• This year is the 94^th year of competition and coincides with the 150^th anniversary of Italian unification. 
• The event is contested by 23 professional teams each consisting of 9 members for a total peloton of 207 riders at the beginning of the race. 

Professional cycling is big business and the Giro is a major international event, so lots of revenue and operating expense are at stake. Given that, take a moment and recall how your company responded to the tragic death of one of their key employees.  Was it to mention the event at the beginning of a meeting, ask for thoughts for the family, and then move onto to the agenda for the day?

Weylandt’s death was tragic and had a profound impact on all of the cyclists.  It’s what happened on the next stage that sets a challenge for all of us in our highly competitive corporate world, where winning is everything, and damn those that would slow our pace towards that victory.  Weyland’s parents and finance flew in and met with his Leopard Trek team the evening of the crash.  The team then met with each of the 22 competing teams and collectively changed the following stage into a funeral cortege instead of the planned competitive race.  In effect, the race was neutralized for this stage with no team or rider gaining or losing any advantage.

The pageantry normally preceding the start of the stage was canceled.  Weylandt’s Leopard Trek team bus was brought to the starting line and each of the 9 members of the 22 competitor teams rode by single file to pay respect to Weylandt and his team. His team then lined up side by side at the starting line with black arm bands while taps was played and the procession started.  Each team took turns pacing the peloton for 10 kilometers, and then rotated to the back of the peloton to allow the next team it’s turn at the front, for the entire 200 kilometer stage. On a day when competition would have been intense, the peloton stayed together as one single body through the corridor of muted applause that greeted them along the way. 3km from the finish line, race leader David Millar finished his team’s pace-setting, and he waved Weylandt’s Leopard Trek teammates to the front and together they rode 10 meters ahead of the rest of the peloton. In a touching moment, Weylandt’s close friend Tyler Farrar was invited to join the Leopard Trek riders as they crossed the finish line arm in arm with tears in their eyes.

Where else could this happen?  I’m trying to think of a different sporting event suspending competition and working together in remembrance of one of their sport.  Now try to think about this happening in our corporate landscape. Imagine a bidder’s conference where all the competing firms agreed to suspend their pursuit efforts for one or more days, instead replacing it with a conference that all the firms attend.  Possible topics could be employee wellness or engagement.  Maybe because I’m writing this on Memorial Day with all the imagery of the day forefront in my mind is this creating such a challenge for me?  I know my CSC colleagues would stand arm in arm if such a tragic death happened to one of our corporate teammates, but I sense this behavior is becoming extinct in the recession induced management style that treats employees as transactional and fungible assets of the corporation.   

There are many examples where corporations compete in friendly events such as the Wall Street Walk/Run, Susan B Komen Run, and the MS Rides to name a few.  These are excellent examples of corporations competing for fun and charity.  But can that spirit move back inside the board room and create a compassionate corporate competition? Recall the scene from Miracle of 34^thStreet when the Santa Claus at Macy’s sends a customer to Gimbels, their arch rival in NY.  As the press picks up on this, two arch rivals compete for which brand cares more about their customers than short-term seasonal profits, with the Macy’s customers telling Macy’s management of their future loyalty for such an unselfish act during the holiday season. Fairy tale Compassionate Competition? Maybe, but who reading this blog doesn’t recall that scene and wonder what if….? 

Imagine any new RFP containing a requirement that the bidding company would need to demonstrate and commit to Corporate Social Consciousness as a weighting factor in the selection criteria.  Imagine a company that requires Corporate Social Consciousness as a key measurement for their employee’s performance management process and backs this up with time away from normal job responsibilities.   

If you could make a difference in your company’s culture and enable your firm to compete on the hypothetical Corporate Social Consciousness requirement of a future RFP, how much more business could be won?  How would this create a market pull for the best of the best future employees?  What members of your business or social community would benefit? How proud would you be of being a member of a successful and compassionate company?  Commit to be a Compassionate Competitor and stand steadfast in that resolve to brand your company with the leadership that comes not only from industry success but also from proactive responses to tragic events and enabling Social Consciousness in the lives of those on your team and those with which you compete.   

Universal Sports was thoughtful enough to make a brief 3 minute YouTube available for you to experience this first hand. The power of this video clip comes at the end, please watch all the way through.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkJw1s0vvek.  

Please come back at me with comments on this blog since I fully recognize it suggests corporate behaviors and commitments that vary widely from the norm.

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Intentional Courage – Creating a Culture of Courage Leadership

This blog is now available as a Podcast. Down load and play in your mp3 player when time permits http://bit.ly/inaxcC

In a previous blog, I challenged you to “extend Trust to others” as an intentional action instead of waiting for enough experiences and behaviors to accumulate to allow that person into your trust circle.  Extending Trust requires Intentional Courage, and all too often that doesn’t happen since the risk of moving out of our comfort zone demands more than we are willing to commit. We gravitate to media accounts of people displaying extraordinary courage, often as a result of a catastrophic event or on the field of combat.  These Reactive Courage behaviors enable that person to achieve what might have seemed to be improbable results, and we stand in awe.

Courage Makes Your Leadership Visible

In the business world, we gravitate to leaders that display confidence and self-assurance.  My sense is that their success has resulted from a series of Intentional Courage actions, but these leaders are the exception to the rule.  In a Gallup Management Journal study on Overcoming Barriers to Success, fear was the first barrier cited, and the one most difficult to overcome.  We face fear when giving a presentation to a senior executive or key customer, informing a customer about a mistake or delay in schedule, or delegating an important task to a more junior person instead of doing it ourselves.  In each instance, the action needs to happen, and approaching it with Intentional Courage instead of fear can create dramatic differences in outcomes for all parties.

Business leaders face tough decisions frequently. Most of the time, they face a decision between an easy but poor choice versus the difficult but good choice. Those who succeed and become better and more assured leaders are those who can reach deep down inside and consistently act on the hard but right decision. They display courage that is highly visible to the organization.  Those behaviors in turn create an environment where courage is rewarded and pulls along others in the organization, creating an organizational competitive advantage.

We live in a business world where change is the norm.  Yet needed change of direction can be inhibited by the fear of changing course from the comfort of the current.  Strong leaders look forward, see where they need to go, make their plans, communicate with their teams and execute.  Intentional Courage illustrated.

I’ve started to access specific actions I have taken during the week that demanded Intentional Courage instead of just going with the status quo.  These daily and weekly scorecards create a set of metrics that guide me in what I must do to change outcomes, absorbing the risk of change to gain the benefit of greater success. Intentional Courage in business is a necessary behavior to achieve dramatic results, and can be good practice area for the larger and more demanding domain of Moral Courage that envelops all of the roles that we inhabit during our lifetime.  I’ll conclude with an extract from Robert Kennedy’s 1966 address to the University of Capetown.

“Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change the world which yields most painfully to change.”

Through each of our intentional actions, we can change outcomes in our business, our personal lives, and possibility the world around us.  It’s our choice to make.  Make it with Intentional Courage.

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Oversimplifying and Under Thinking – Is Social Media the Cause or the Cure?

(This blog is available as a podcast – http://bit.ly/kRCvdE)

When exactly did it become fashionable to Oversimplify and Under-Think important political, industry, financial, or education decisions?  More importantly, when did we as consumers of these poorly constructed solutions accept this as the new norm from what are alleged to be leaders in their respective fields? Whether your interests are the current political climate, corporate decisions on products and social responsibility, Wall Street’s influence on our economic health, or government policies on education, there are ample examples of decisions that don’t meet the standards of being well thought through or deal with the complexity of the problem.

As I’ve started to explore Social Media in greater depth the past few months, I’m trying to discern whether these new communication forums are adding to our collective knowledge base or eroding the discipline necessary for focused research and critical thinking.  Traditional academic or vocational training requires a laser focus and a lengthy time commitment to instill and remember the key points and lessons.  Social media can be as simple as a Retweet or a Like button. 

Social Media has enormous potential to bring many people together for group think on an important topic, but all too often it seems to have been to Oversimplify the topic and Under-Think the communication.  If you are active on Twitter, count the number of non-annotated Retweets you receive from someone you follow versus how many are original thoughts or media references.  The ones I value most are those that are original thought or make an introductory remark about a referenced URL they include.  This implies they have read and understand the material and believe their followers would find it valuable.  Blindly retweeting something tends to Oversimplify the communication. 

I know that some of you reading this blog are thinking that I have Over-Thought this Social Media issue. The prevailing belief is that Social Media is meant to be a stream of thoughts, and let the reader triage through all the Smart Phone hits or TweetDeck updates.  We have a real opportunity with Social Media that may not be realized if we don’t think through how we push information out to our followers.  

With Social Media, we can transform the traditional push model of learning into a pull model. Pull models treat people as networked innovators who are uniquely positioned to transform a problem into an opportunity. Pull models can be designed to accelerate knowledge building by participants, helping them to learn as well as innovate.  But that success is directly proportional to how much effort and thoughtfulness we put into the content that becomes pull available.  I’ve found this to be a delicate balancing act, since the instant gratification part of me wants to respond to each tweet or Facebook update, the structured part of me wants undivided time to itself to Think through the topic before pushing this content. 

Writing this blog is my self-imposed method of taking the Think approach, creating content that can be pulled by my followers.  They can then aggregate my thinking with others and produce a higher value content from which we can all learn and benefit.  As for my tweets, every so often I allow an Oversimplified and Under-Thought retweet loose on my followers.  Sorry about that. 

Try this approach yourself if you dare. You have the capacity to produce valuable content that can be pulled and leveraged to advance our collective learning. Then the promise of Social Media will be realized and we can all innovate the next frontier of communication and learning. 

Comments are welcome on this topic, as long as they are Thoughtful.

To learn more about Ed Becker, visit  http://www.linkedin.com/in/edbeckerprincetonnj

 

Hello, I Must be Going – Employee Engagement in a Recovering Economy

I was surfing YouTube the other day and somehow came across a clip from one of my favorite Marx Brothers movies, Animal Crackers.  The scene is Groucho Marx as Captain Spaulding returning from a long “out of location assignment” carried into the “home office”.  Groucho’s character has been off in a foreign land with none of the comforts of his normal living arrangement. Upon his return to a lavish but transparent party to welcome him home he breaks out in song as only Groucho can do….  

“Hello, I must be going,

I cannot stay, I came to say, I must be going.

I’m glad I came, but just the same I must be going.

I’ll stay a week or two,

I’ll stay the summer thru,

But I am telling you,

I must be going.”

 

That humorous scene from Animal Crackers (circa 1930) started me thinking this could soon be the outcome for some employers.  Employees will return from an arduous project or assignment, and because they have not felt engaged with their company, will quickly decide that they cannot stay and “must be going”, likely to a competitor.  For those too young to recall this scene (that ultimately become Groucho’s theme song), here’s a short YouTube version. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6yLRmo7CjU

The past two plus years of economic troubles have created a perception that companies needn’t worry about employee turnover and retention. The current thinking in some companies suggests that because of layoffs and downsizing all around, employees have stepped up, absorbed additional duties, and are satisfied with just having a job.  Recent articles in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal suggest that within the general employed population, there exists a desire to find other employment. These reports are reinforced with a survey by the human resource consulting firm Hewitt, which reported 50 percent of the U.S. workforce will “consider” or “actively look for” other employment as soon as the economy improves.  I’ve been on other webinars that suggest the number is far north of 50%. 

It doesn’t have to be this way.  I believe that enlightened corporate leaders emerge in times of economic distress.  Any corporate manager (note that I didn’t use the term leader) that believes that their employees are fungible assets and neglects the chance to engage them as the fabric of client satisfaction and revenue realization in tough times is short-sighted and creates an opportunity for a competitor with better employee engagement practices to leap-frog them in their industry.  

There are many things that an enlightened corporate leader can do to continue to engage their staff that has little corporate investment and here is a short list of a few

• Communicating the company’s strategy and goals and providing a monthly dashboard for general distribution is a good first step. 
• A sense of community makes a difference. Mitchell, Holtom, Lee, Sablunski, and Erez found that employees stay at jobs when they feel a sense of fit and connection with their coworkers, job, organization, and community.
• Recognition for work and results well done is an opportunity to celebrate with the entire team and others not on the team for them to see what success looks like and create a yearning to be the next team recognized.
• Development plans with teeth that support learning and development that can be leveraged for both greater client billings and individual career growth 

Employee engagement in times of economic uncertainty can demonstrate the company’s commitment to treat their employees as individuals and not simply fungible assets.  The marginal added cost of training and the no-cost communication from leadership teams can help to maintain the company’s most precious resource, their people.

Absent this behavior, some employers might be soon hearing…” Hello, I Must be Going” sometime soon. 

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Smiles and the Virtual Office – Are Your Smile Muscles Atrophying?

I’ve discovered recently that I smile less now that I work virtually more of the time.  I was never a person that awoke each day determined to smile all day, but my smile frequency has clearly attenuated over the past few months.  Social media, email, blogging, and networking have been a wondrous communication spectrum with tons of information banging at my LCD screen throughout the day and night, but it doesn’t often cause a smile.  I’m concerned that my smile muscles may be atrophying. 

We have been visiting with a friend who has a 4 month old son and hang out with him when she needs time to be an adult.  This kid is a Human Smile Meter.  If I look at him or call his name, the sound causes him to peer in my direction.  But if I smile while doing this, he instantly gives me an ear to ear smile in return.  I now have access to a smile meter to help me exercise those lazy smile muscles back to full strength.

This has started me thinking of how many others may be suffering from this virtual-work smile apathy syndrome.  We often smile in our on-line communications by including a smiley emoticon.  Can you think of a time when you entered that emoticon and really weren’t exhibiting the accompanying smile?  I just read an article in the Washington Post that I find incredible but makes the point that we must not smile as much these days.  When getting a driver’s license in Virginia, you are not allowed to smile for the picture.  Apparently the agency is developing facial recognition software that compares your face over time to prevent fraud or other illegal practices.  This implies that you will be caught not smiling sometime in the future and that would mess up the recognition software.  So there you have it, a government agency banning smiles since we smile so little.  If you think I’m kidding, here’s the story, it actually generated a real smile for me when reading it.  http://tinyurl.com/qb5226.  I’m now searching for a webcam application for my laptop that would forbid me from tying a smiley face if it detects that I am not smiling.  If one doesn’t exist, anyone reading this with any technical ability might have a new product launch in their future.

I have adopted a new smile posture when out in public, smiling at more and more people.  The results are almost 100% that a smile is returned.  It can’t be that my face is so amusing or attractive to generate that return smile.  It must be the surprise that someone would smile at them for no good reason other than to create a happy thought.  Imagine the good feelings I could unleash in a short 30 minute walk around town.  I must try this once I can get my smile muscles back in shape for that challenge!

Take a few minutes the next time you are in work or out in public and try smiling at people.  If working remote or virtual office, exercise those smile muscles during the day.  The days are too long already and the lack of a smile quota will make them seem that much longer. This cute little innocent 4-month old boy has taught me what I seem to have forgotten, that smiles are always welcome and usually returned.  

Mother Theresa stated this best: “Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing”.  Plus it’s the most inexpensive way to change your looks.

This 🙂 is Real – Trust Me

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Social Capital – Affluence and Influence through Social Networking

My concept of Social Capital has evolved significantly over the past few months.  I have an extensive and far-reaching network at CSC, with many trusted colleagues and many of them have become lifelong friends.  It was an environment that was resilient to organizational changes.  It was nurturing and full of reciprocal behaviors that drove active learning and a powerful set of virtual teams. 

In the past few months, I have been exposed to a number of social networks that have provided significant social capital. A few months ago, I had a mere skeleton of a profile on LinkedIn and had not made any effort to establish or expand my network.  From a few baby steps a few months ago, the social capital of my networks has exploded.  I am experiencing the wealth and influence of being a contributing member of an expanding set of networks that includes my dear friends at CSC at the core, and now includes many others that I have not met before, and may never actually met in person. 

Farming and harvesting these social connections has increased the social capital of my network, and I believe that those that are new connections to me have gained added social wealth and influence as well.  This is an abundance, not a scarcity wealth system.  As I gain social wealth, it doesn’t come at the expense of someone else; in fact both of us gain wealth in the expansion of our collective networks.  And that wealth grows at a non-linear positive rate.  Early on, I was inviting people to join my network.  Now that I have established a fairly “rich” network, I am receiving invitations from others that may be from a distant past relationship or someone completely new.  Imagine how fulfilling it is to be a part of a social fabric that continues to gain wealth and influence as we collectively grow together.

In a previous blog, I spoke of Trust and its value in driving Results, Profits, and Values.   I now believe I can expand on that discussion since the core of social capital is trust.  My CSC friends exhibit “thick trust”, and using my “invest in trust approach”; I have a “thin trust” with many more connections.  The challenge will be to continually move those with thin trust to thick trust and replenish the thin trust pool with more new connections.   Those with thin trust are expected to engage in reciprocity, doing for others not with any immediate expectation of repayment. This kind of thin trust is especially valuable, since it lubricates social interactions and moves the total social network to a more trusted and therefore wealthier state. 

I challenge you to invest in your current social network, and further challenge you to stretch into the unknown and seek to expand that network.  My experiences to date have shown that you and I will gain social wealth and influence from the commitment.

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