If I Was Running A Company…Onboarding

Onboarding is simple: New employee comes in, learns the company and the system, and co-workers feel comfortable.  There are some who hate the process because 1) they don’t want to stay with the company that long, 2) they want to work, not learn the company and 3) they really hate the process overall.

There is the rare exception where onboarding can be a good thing. The video below might not be a classic employer video, but this video encourages me to join with the team (and if that doesn’t work out, I’ll buy season tickets if I have the money):

(The good part begins at 1:15)

Now, who wants to join this organization?  I DO!  By the way, about Dan Gilbert…

If I Was Running A Company…Swagger

Swagger is…

• A Culture
• A Skill
• Not an attitude… an action
• Not thinking, but knowing confidence
• An infectious disease you want to have
• People wanting to work
• Walk the walk
• Planning and Execution
• Sweat
• Going all out
• Knowing your role and doing it well
• Require greatness
• Exceed extraordinary
• Earned, not given
• An intensity of a thousand suns
• Not determine by the clothes and strut you carry, but the person behind the strut and wearing the clothes
• All for one and one for all
• Poise under pressure
• Exuberance
• Your Domain
• Owning the situation
• Not to be confused with arrogance and cockiness
• Not an extension of swag
• Respect
• Setting the standard
• Imitated and copied by others
• Forcing the issue
• One step ahead of everyone else
• Shows up intrinsically and statistically
• Believing and Representing
• You

If I Was Running A Company…Fear

The past couple of weeks, there has been a discussion of change or lack of change from healthcare reform and use of social media at work (you can read here, here, and here). All of these relate to one thing: Fear.

Fear is essentially a problem where people are panicking what’s going to happen in the future.  Fear is the oldest sales tactic in the book.  People are worried about the future, so they attach a price so people can feel comfortable until they find another fear.

At the workplace, there are many things to fear: getting fired, litigation, office romance, performance, uncertainty, culture, technological advances, old and young workers, power, change, status quo, variables, perfection and many others.  Fear motivates us to work because it was thrust upon us to face it. 

Why people sell on fear because in the back of our minds, there’s uncertainty in the future.  When employees and employers don’t know what to do, they’ll ask the experts in the field and pay for it.  Fear is not a bad thing to have when there is actual uncertainty within the organization, but some do it to an extreme to utilize those fears into a benefit on their own.  Organizations rely too much on one or two things that are saviors, but in reality, they could have solve themselves if they didn’t panic.

How can organizations reduce their fears? Be themselves and let it happen.  Let the individuals do their job;  give them goals, the settings, and the rules and people will respond.  Treat your employees like they’re in an improv classes and let them go.  These are professionals you’re dealing with, not kids.  Not everything has to be reviewed character by character.

Overall, organizations need to realize that fear is a mindset created from an altered perspective from others and it will last until you realize this can be solved within.  Everyone can respond to fear, but by planning and execution, they can master that fear.

If I Was Running A Company…Napping

If you’ve been reading on your current events, you might have heard that napping is very good not only for your health, but boosting productivity at work.  That is a good thing…and a bad thing.

The Good

Napping gives a second wind for employees to end on a good note for the day.  Napping recalibrates our brains and organizes what needs to be done.  Napping replenish our soul to do better things.  This is why pre-school have nap times so they can play all day and ruin their parents lives (I kid).  Napping proves the standard 9-5 schedule is non-existent anymore and people don’t have to worry about time, only results matter.  It use to be napping was a deterrent to work. Now, it’s an added necessity for a better workplace.

The Bad

Napping is telling us we are living in a 24/7 workplace.  I understand businesses need to be competitive to keep in touch with the masses, but does every second really have to count?  Businesses are thinking themselves with people having short-attention spans getting shorter, they must plaster something every second to get people talking about before it expires.  Just wait where businesses will call people at 3AM…constantly.

The point here is although napping has their benefits, businesses need to pick their spots on growing their customer base and their value.  That takes time, not overkill and sadly, I think this is where most businesses are heading.

If I Was Running A Company…Abe Pollin

I never met or saw Abe Pollin.  The closest thing I came to Abe Pollin is Abe Pollin Way.  However, there was a reason DC name a street after him.

Before owning the Washington Bullets/Wizards and Capitals, Abe was in the construction business.  Abe made tons of money and decided that he (and a bunch of investors) want to buy the Baltimore Bullets in 1964.  He wanted to move the team to the DC area, so in the 1970s, Abe put up $200+ million of his own money and build the Capital Centre.  At that time, it was state of art arena with a big screen TV and box suites.  It was home of the Bullets only championship in 1978 and the first and only championship Abe won.  When the arena was outdated in the mid 90s, Abe wanted an arena in downtown DC to build traffic and swarms of people.  He wanted funding from the DC government, but since DC had no funding at all to pay for Abe’s arena, Abe had a choice of moving his team somewhere or spend another $200 Million plus on a new arena in downtown DC.  He chose the latter and it is paying dividends.

The MCI (now Verizon) Center revitalized downtown DC since people can go to the “Phone Booth” to be entertained and go to numerous bars and restaurants surrounding Penn Quarter and Chinatown.  It open new business and job opportunities and an additional 3 hours to stay in DC.

Why I am mentioning Abe Pollin in the workplace blog post is because he was a rare businessman whose decisions not only effect  his organization, but the whole city.  

One of Abe’s strengths was his charisma and straight forward attitude.  When seeing and hearing Abe, you want to help him out and volunteer for the guy.  Abe wanted to see the big picture and his vision trickle down to his employees.  A great example was in 1982 when the Washington Capitals were struggling and thoughts of relocation were in play.  Abe created the “Save the Caps“ Campaign to keep hockey in Washington.  Ken Delinger and Dave Kindred scoffed at the campaign and when Abe read that, he pulled out a full-page ad in the Washington Post calling the writers untruthful and that the campaign was real.  A year later in 1983, the Caps made to the playoffs for the first time.  Another example was the “firing” of Michael Jordan in 2003, where Jordan was supposed to bring the Wizards to the playoffs either as player or President and didn’t get the job done.  People want Jordan to stay, but Abe realize this was not going to work and fired him instead.  It caused an uproar in DC, even calling Abe “racist.” In hindsight, it was the best direction for both parties.

Another of Abe’s strengths is that he gave back.  As a philanthropist, Abe gave money to Jewish Centers, cancer research, and various charities in DC.  As a businessman, Abe made two sacrifices to help rebuild DC.  The first attempt was to show DC was a sports town beyond the Redskins.  The second attempt was a calling to rejuvenate DC.   He succeeded in both.  Also, he was very loyal to his friends and employees.  If you screw up, Abe will guide you and be your mentor.  Abe made you feel you can’t do no wrong, unless you screw up big time.

Which leads me to his main weakness: his loyalty.  As the saying goes, “Your weakness is your reflection of your strength.”  Abe was loyal to a fault. Look at Wes Unseld: He was great friends with Abe since he was on the 1978 Championship team.  He became coach in 1987 and the team never had a winning record under Unseld.  However, Wes stayed on the job for 8 years because of Abe and admit to Abe that he was not a head coach.  Abe wanted to depend on his inner circle and didn’t want to go outside of it (re: Jordan).

Another fault of Abe is he did show favoritism towards his brands.  Basketball was his first love.  The Bullets won the championship and Abe wanted a second NBA Championship.  That never happened because of Bird and Magic and their luck in the NBA Draft Lottery, plus giving $105 million to Juwan Howard.  At the same time, the Capitals were flying high, appearing in the playoffs every year, but when free agency rolled around, Abe didn’t put out the money to future hall of famers Scott Stevens and Mike Gartner, and both had great careers after leaving the Caps.

Of all those faults, the overall point is that Abe made his decision for himself.  Abe didn’t have to stay in DC because the government rejected public funding for the arena nor he had to bring Michael Jordan.  However, he wanted to because he love DC so much that he would donate his body to DC if he wanted to.  Ted Leonsis will be a great owner for both DC franchises and from the looks of it, he will do an awesome job, but he realize he is miles behind Abe Pollin.  

Abe thought he owe his employees and the city of DC something to be proud of.  The Verizon Center was his version of saying, “Thank You” for 12 years and counting.  You can have your cake, Abe!

If I Was Running A Company…Nonprofit Business

Last week, I discuss how a job seeker can join the world of nonprofits.  Now, I’m here to tell what to expect of going into nonprofits.

What Nonprofits Do:

If you want to get into nonprofits, understand their biggest strength: storytelling.  Nonprofits are there to send a message to an audience.  Nonprofits bring an emotional attachment that the person can either donate money, volunteer, or spend more time on the subject.  If there is no attachment, there will be no cause and no nonprofit.  That is why it is important what makes you tick and how to utilize your skills for “good.”

Benefits:

You know the deal that nonprofits don’t pay as much and work for long hours.  There are two reason why salaries are low.  One is funding for salaries since most come of the salary comes from the government and there are restrictions on how to spend that money.  The other reason salaries are low is your organization is spending a lot on benefits from healthcare, retirement, life insurance, and others to make up for the salary and let you have close to security in the future.

Resources:

I would like to call the nonprofiteers the “Moneyballers” of an organization.  Although nonprofits do not have the resources like the private sector has, nonprofiteers are very clever and know how to maximize with little.  This article from Harvard Business Publishing tells exactly how nonprofits use their resources.

The key player:

Although storytelling and emotional content can bring people together, the most important person in nonprofits is the fundraiser.  The fundraiser can have many faces within a nonprofit: it has a face (or voice) people recognize, a salesperson who cares about the cause, and a super salesperson/networker.  The first two is easy to identify if done properly, but the last one is like the Angel of Death.  It is the one person that you don’t want to see, but it is willing to protect you.  In this case, the fundraiser’s sole objective is to raise money by any means necessary.  Storytelling might bring people to watch a mural, but the fundraiser drives the nonprofits to monetary success.

This brings to the overall point about working for nonprofits currently is strictly business.  Don’t get me wrong, there are going to be business aspects anywhere you go, including nonprofits, but nonprofits need to pick their spots.  What business does for nonprofits is give them structure, but it is also the nonprofits job to keep the focus on their cause and storytelling, but the both can overlap at times.

In the two posts I wrote about nonprofits the past couple weeks, one thing that stands out is work that you care for.  That is why I mention to job seekers to find three organizations/causes you want to work for.  If you don’t have any purpose of what you’re working, then what’s the point of job searching and vice versa for the employees working in nonprofits?