For decades educators have taught two important ideas about learning and development: 1) If you say that you believe in a student’s particular capability, and keep repeating it, after a while they will accept that belief as reality. 2) If you wish to get the best out of a student, find the best in a student.
Parents and classroom teachers have not taken these ideas to heart. Students, from a very young age, undergo “forced ranking” through the grading system, a competition which labels individuals as being at the top, middle or bottom of their class. (Enron raised the stakes with their “rank-and-yank” approach to firing underperformers which did wonders for long-term leadership development.) Not coincidentally, teachers habitually point out to students not what they do right but what they do wrong – over and over. Furthermore, they tend to focus their quality teaching time on those students who they perceive will answer a question correctly. As a result, students learn that the best way to succeed is to give the teacher what they want and not make waves. Even if you thought you were right, there’s no point in arguing with the person giving you your performance review, i.e. grades. It’s the rare and heroic teacher who breaks that pattern – check out Dead Poet’s Society, Finding Forester and Rudy for a few Hollywood examples.
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Is Work-Life Balance Worth Fighting For?
What makes an organization an employer of choice? So many people list “work-life balance” as one of the key knock-out factors. Like an elusive vision of an oasis in the desert, it radiates with simplicity and philosophical appeal. Some things are more important than work but what does “work-life balance” really mean? A source of much discussion and great frustration among employees, the idea of an organization with work-life balance doesn’t really stand up to scrutiny – it’s an oasis that will always exist on the distant horizon.
One shouldn’t despair – work-life balance may not be such a great idea anyway. The quest for it reminds me of Shel Silverstein’s wonderful story, “The Missing Piece.” Although written for children, it speaks most aptly to adults. Continue reading » »
I have a lot of trouble with integrity. That’s not a personal confession and it’s not a statement about today’s (occasionally challenging) business climate. Instead, it’s a problem I have with the word itself. My difficulties emerge when I’m doing a values exercise with a senior team. As we discuss what makes their organization unique, someone inevitably suggests that “integrity” be included on the list. That’s when my brow furrows and my headache starts.
According to a Harvard Business Review article[1], 55% of all Fortune 100 companies define integrity as one of their “core” values. When working with a senior team, I could just cite that statistic if I wanted to discourage the inclusion of integrity on their list. Or, I could add that integrity was one of Enron’s values too. But either because I’m too polite to take a cheap shot or an optimist at heart, I take a deep breath and say: “Okay. If integrity is one of your values, let’s define it in a way that is meaningful to your organization.” And let the fun begin. Continue reading » »
In 1982, the Michelin North America factory in Nova Scotia had no work. A slow down in the economy and plummeting demand for tires could mean only one thing: the factory would have to shut down and many jobs would be lost. It was a familiar story, one that had been played out in many factory towns across Canada and the US – with one major difference. This time the story didn’t end quite the way we were used to.
Michelin and its employees at the Nova Scotia factory decided to take the long view and came up with a different answer to a familiar problem. They knew that good times would follow bad so they had faith in the future. The crisis concerned only the short-term, a year or so at most. Admittedly, a year can look like an eternity from the usual vantage point of North American companies, but Michelin had a different culture and set of values to draw on. The mature view of its European parent allowed the plant to decide that values and committed people should not be sacrificed to bumps in the road.
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When an organization launches a new initiative, employees are usually eager to go forward together in an attempt to accomplish those aims. Of course, there are always a few cynical doubters, reluctant traditionalists or destructive naysayers in any employee population. But leaders are generally given the benefit of the doubt. If senior leaders say this is the way the organization needs to go, most people are willing to help get it there.
The credibility of leaders is like an inherited trust. Under normal circumstances, that account has a high balance.
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