Blog Articles And Comments

Emerging from a recession, grabbing opportunity and surviving intense global competition, we cannot be fooled by the dangerous and misleading propaganda... "Work Smarter, Not Harder!" Statements along these lines when misinterpreted can only lead to disaster. The blueprint for success requires balance. 

Agreed it can be more effective to work smart than to work hard, in most cases both are necessary. In addition, “smart” can be a matter of misinterpretation in itself. “Smart” can only truly be judged by one who is “smart” in the capacity and criteria to be evaluated. “Smart” can be ill defined.  Nonetheless, "Work Smarter" should remain our dedicated target, we just need to lose the "Not Harder" component.

Through study of human work ethic, it is undeniable that many top performers equate “working hard” with “doing your best.” Anything short of doing one’s best is less than adequate. Therefore, working “hard” is always one of the goals. Where and how we channel our energies and how we balance and care for ourselves is a matter of personal choice and commitment.

Nations rich in socialism and suppressed middle class existence present global competition of both working hard and working smart in tandem. Those who wish to compete must rise to the occasion or lose the opportunity to fight another day. While the U.S. is not easily adaptable by history and infrastructure to the socialist principles which have been embraced by other nations, Americans must not think they can exist in a vacuum, especially after centuries of global involvement.

Those proven to offer judgment, accomplishment and commitment to excellence effectively draw upon the “Work Smarter, Not Harder” mantra with astute understanding that successful results require efficiency and sound judgment. These toolsets can lead to quicker, easier and more accurate positive outcomes, freeing our resources to accomplish more in the end.  The mantra works best for those already working hard. Those, however, lacking necessary work commitment are adversely impacted and misled by this mantra, using it as an excuse to retract effort.

This is an essential organizational development topic to be safeguarded by employee education, policies, practices and daily performance management. The ambiguity of related remarks is polluting team members’ understanding of workplace expectations and the blueprint to security and advancement. Consider this both a “call to action” and an opportunity of betterment for organizational leaders at all levels.

Self-starters rarely understand those who are not self-starters, and most available employees are not self-starters.  This lack of understanding creates a barrier to audience adaptation and leadership problem solving.  Until we learn otherwise, we tend to believe others think and behave as we do.  Without specific leadership training, self-starters lack necessary frame of reference and are often less than successful engaging and guiding the performance of others.   By definition, these individuals “figured it out” by themselves and simply can’t understand why others can’t or won’t do the same. 
 
Employers tend to promote top performers, usually self-starters, to leadership roles.  Upon doing so, we fail to recognize that we are often promoting for the wrong reasons.  A self-starter with the right leadership training can lead by example.  A self-starter may be more proactive in the leadership education process and gain more.  A self-starter unwilling or improperly trained in leadership, will most likely fail, especially if they are unwilling or ineffective to be either transformational or transactional in leadership style.  Leadership is lifelong education, requiring regular revisits to the basics.  Without ability to understand and adapt to those unlike us, we stunt company growth and can only hire a small percentage of the available applicant pool.  For most organizations, too many self-starters in the hierarchy can be similar to “too many cooks in the kitchen.”  It is for this reason that major market employers can rarely be highly selective with regard to this characteristic, even in times of high unemployment.
 
We know that leadership is not a natural progression but rather a distinct, precise and often trainable subset.  Coaching is something many self-starters have no interest in. “Why should I coddle you, when no one coddled me?”  Coaching should never be coddling but rather a transfer of information, measurable success benchmarks, regular performance feedback and precisely communicated and delivered rewards and consequences.  Assuming the talent acquisition process is doing its job, coaching is that which makes success an employee choice. 
 
To be a self-starter is to be intrinsically motivated, motivated from within, believing that hard work and/or successful results lead to positive outcomes.  Those not intrinsically motivated can often pinpoint the catalyst to their new extrinsic motivation and can successfully understand and relate to others also not intrinsically motivated.  We know that extrinsic motivation is volatile, affected by the employer.  Motivation is, in its simplest terms, a reason.  We know most people are not intrinsically motivated.  This is validated through decades of results, employee research in the hundreds of thousands, and pinpointed findings in the AskHRS.com surveys.
 
Self-starters can make great managers, provided they are willing and precisely trained in audience adaptation and effective coaching principles.  Those who make good employees because of someone else’s effective coaching should also be considered for coaching opportunities.  Understanding what transformed you to improved performance is a valuable toolset applicable to transforming others!  Those who were “transformed” can be highly influential and motivational success stories for others.  If you are reading this, you are most likely already a self-starter. 
 
HRS interactive leadership workshops are globally valued, offering quantifiable success.  Please contact us with your interest!

The key to assessing motivation and predicting results of employees is to pinpoint information they may not even know of themselves.  How do we do this?  Carefully crafted investigations through behavior based assessment and interviewing. Why do we do this?  Work ethic is detectable, complex and begins early. While successful organizational development depends upon the creating and sustaining of extrinsic (situational) motivation, an individual’s intrinsic (from within) motivation can be very difficult to change and requires an entirely different approach. 

 

Work ethic is a core fundamental unique to every individual.  It is developed over our lifetime and benefits from the earliest start possible.  It begins with reaching for the infant toy rather than having that toy placed in your hand.  It stems from inspiration… inspiration through need (sometimes desperation) and requires the belief set that work will influence results.  Those too coddled fail to develop the need.  Those not exposed to role models attaining results fail to buy-in to the outcomes.  We know these fundamentals are shaped and reinforced over our lifetime.  

 

Somewhere in the early 90’s, at a CEO Summit for which he was keynote speaker, I had the good fortune to work one-to-one with Bob Galvin, former Motorola CEO and son of founder Paul Galvin.  Bob & I instantly connected on an essential finding:  future leaders can be pointed out by age 14.  A very controversial summation at that time, people have jumped on board to that thinking more and more.  While several interpretations of “leadership” exist, the leadership we speak of here is visionary leadership and invention through inspiration, creativity, problem solving and risk taking, something for which Bob has been multiply awarded, something that stems from work ethic.  

 

Why can we spot leaders in their early teens? 

 

1)      Intrinsic motivation starts in early childhood, part nature and a lot of nurture.  Messages through parenting and life’s experiences teach a child the connection between hard work, results and rewards.  It requires risk tolerance and effort. “You miss 100% of the shots you never take.” (Wayne Gretzky) 

2)      Success breeds success.  Those who get a taste of accomplishment early can acquire a hunger for it, and of course – a confidence in the ability to attain.

3)      Leadership is not the automatic progression of doing something else well.  It is a distinctive skill set, orientation and career path.  It is marked by characteristics which reveal themselves early in life and need nurturing.  Leadership is also not a degree in management without the knowledge of how to do anything else in specific at which to lead. 

4)      The leadership we speak of here requires willingness to fail and go on, problem solving and a lifelong learning commitment.  Each of these fundamentals are easiest developed at an early age.

5)      Many scientists and psychologists believe our highest level of pure intelligence is at birth and with learning peaking during our first 2 years of life.  Wisdom, education and experience fill in over time proportionate to our exposure.

 

Can this type of leadership emerge later in life?  Yes, through dedicated choice and/or circumstances of revelation impact.  

 

Work ethic can emerge from an intrinsic sense of responsibility and/or when we believe we can or are desperate enough to try to “control our own destiny.”  Leadership is both a subset of work ethic and a combination of behavioral characteristics.  We cannot lead effectively if no one is willing to follow.  We should be willing to lead by example.  Whether a leader of creation/invention or a leader of others, effective leadership relies upon creating inspirational ideas and/or directly inspiring others. 

 

Effective leadership, like any career path, requires commitment.  Commitment requires work ethic.  Parents can be most effective in developing work ethic when they lead by example, create need (inspiration) and reinforce the rewards of work.  Think about the term “street smarts” to further understand the importance of “need” in work ethic development. 

 

Whatever the choices or extenuating circumstances of one’s life, work ethic is simply “doing your best” with sincerity and willingness of sacrifice.  If education is the target, substantial learning is not reliant upon financial resources but rather the willingness to do the work to learn.  People have been self-taught with very little financial resources… Abraham Lincoln, for one.  If advanced education is the desire, college can be self-financed.   Start them young wherever you can.  Parents need to understand their role in work ethic development and they must start at infancy.  If they aren’t willing to do the work, maybe they should just provide access to a proper role model and then leave the kid alone to figure it out. 

 

Make no mistake.  We know the “leave alone” approach can be over-used and backlash with other developmental problems, which is why so many attentive and well-intending parents fear and under-use it – also affecting work ethic and leadership..  We’re looking for balance, commitment, role modeling and work ethic in our parenting.  We’re looking for parents to teach their kids to successfully “leave the nest” by providing supportive age-appropriate guidance, work skills and motivation.  The work ethic development trail can be very telling and predictive to future workplace outcomes.   It can be visible in a self-prepared resume and can be detected in a carefully crafted interview or assessment exercise.  Again, most commonly, it begins in early youth. 

 

An essential tool of leadership and motivation is to “catch someone doing something right.”  This single key principle allows us to achieve better results with corrective action and allows people their greatest level of hope, inspiration, buy-in and accomplishment.  While intrinsic motivation begins in childhood and can be difficult to change, extrinsic motivation is among the most volatile of variables in people.

 

So, why do we offer the exact opposite to our country in the face of economic crisis and election of new leadership?  Why do we allow negative campaigning that destroys hope and motivation, which in turn adversely impacts economic prosperity?  Why at the most visible and widespread level do we allow the opposite of desirable behavior?

 

Election propaganda, stereotyping and irresponsible journalism need to be called out and controlled.  Let’s catch our candidates doing something right.  Let’s catch our business leaders doing something right.  Let’s catch “Joe Six-Pack” doing something right.  “Joe Six-Pack”… really? Do we think calling our average American a lazy beer guzzling non-intellectual is upholding the right standard?  Joe should step away from the six-pack and produce some results.  Economic prosperity should be earned.  Results are to be rewarded and effort to be applauded.

 

Kindness, integrity, pride in a strong work ethic and the golden rule can go along away.  At the end of the day, how you feel when your head hits the pillow can be an indicator of personal success.  Hope creates success. Generation Y is mixed with regard to work ethic, partially because they’ve been raised with too much tragedy and negativity in their living room.  Some respond with conviction to overcome, while others are de-motivated by lack of hope. We de-motivate when we place bad news on page 1 and good news on page 36.  The media should get that.  Our political campaigners should get that. 

 

Let’s catch someone doing something right every day and make an example of that!  Let’s think things through before we automatically tear them down.  Let’s avoid dangerous stereotypes and look for positive exceptions.  Let’s stop creating fear of US businesses as a whole because of the greedy unethical actions of a few.  What I’m looking for in a candidate and political party is integrity and the ability to inspire.  Inspiration will have a positive impact on our economy.

Why should our country’s leadership be exempt from the rules of appropriate corporate leadership?  We call out inappropriate corporate leadership but we don’t enough call out inappropriate campaigning and inappropriate media behavior.  Both political parties talk of change, but I’m watching them use the same political tactics already.  Let’s enforce the standard to “catch someone doing something right!”

 

In coaching others and continually striving for lifelong learning & self-improvement, I’ve been in search of new ideas regarding business etiquette.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s important to know when to place your napkin on your lap at a business luncheon, but I’m seeking something deeper, more meaningful and directly applicable to our everyday work lives. 

 

As a starting point, I think a few of the biggest things that aren’t published frequently enough are getting back to the basics of 1) Respect other’s time, 2) “Do your homework” and 3) Listen & Retain.  While these seem to be such “common sense” and simplistic topics, they can be easy to quickly stray from.  With that, these are each things that most certainly point to etiquette in the workplace as without them, you will quickly set yourself up to be an extremely unprofessional professional.

 

Communication methods are very literally at our fingertips in various forms including e-mail and instant messaging.  Accordingly, it’s become incredibly easy to access your co-workers & clients.  While these forms are also a benefit in not needing to physically interrupt someone or cause their phone to ring – they are also easy to abuse.  Most especially taking note that Generation Y has grown up with these tools, we need to train ourselves and our teams to stop, search and review before we execute.

 

Though I sometimes wonder if I was born in the right generation, being a Gen Y’er myself, I’ve found I do crave knowledge and, stereotypically, like instant feedback.  Therefore, I recognize the importance first hand of maintaining patience and having the wisdom to see when there’s time for me to gain more of it.  Requesting meetings and feedback sessions with your superiors not only shows respect for their and the company’s time – but also shows polite respect for their knowledge and experience.  If you’re entitled to the information, management will be more willing to help you grow when you go about it in this regard. 

 

Of equal importance, it’s critical to always be proactive and productive on your own.  After all, isn’t that why you’re paid to be around?  To relentlessly be focusing on the bottom line and your positive impact to it should be a constant driver.  Especially during times of training, have you exhausted your available resources before interrupting a co-worker or superior? 

 

If you’re going to ask a question, it’s imperative to have the courtesy of having done your homework beforehand.  To be able to go to someone informing them of the resources you’ve tapped and information you’ve found shows your determination while letting them get straight to the point knowing those actions have been taken. 

 

Furthermore, it’s vital to then listen to and retain the information you’re given.  As employers constantly strive to attract, listen to, and retain their employees – so should we listen to and retain the assistance provided us to maximize the company’s investment and continue to be an asset to it.   

 

In the long run, needing to know which fork to use becomes irrelevant when you’re not even invited to the lunch with a client - because you can’t wow ‘em in the office.  Your internal team should be your #1 clients!  Get their positive attention, look out for the company’s bottom line, and watch your own grow along with your new opportunities!


Blog Article by Jodi Rasmussen, HRS Assistant Director of Professional Service Operations!

Born 1980 to 1994, they’ve been called “pampered,” “nurtured” and even “spoiled.”   Raised with astounding conveniences and immediate electronic feedback, they’ve been simultaneously disheartened by negative impacts to trust coming right into their living rooms in an age of overextending media and never-ending awareness of world tragedy, terrorism and economic disaster.  Coddled by parents wanting their kids to have everything they didn’t have, they sometimes set their work thresholds low.  As a proud parent to a couple of these high functioning “millennials,” I understand their perspective and see an opportunity to mentor.

 

As a Baby Boomer, I firmly understand that my generation hasn’t exactly “gotten it right,” and while I’m proud of personal accomplishments and the accomplishments of my generation on the whole, I certainly recognize the opportunity for improvement.  To improve from one generation to the next is the very definition of progress.  It is not only the right but also the responsibility of each generation to improve upon the previous generation.  So, who are we to tell Gen Y they are wrong?

 

Should the entire generation stand united with determination to work less and tolerate less stress, maybe change can be effected.  I can already tell you, however, that several young members of this group are stepping up impressively.  In my generation, if you don’t work relentlessly, someone else will step up and steal the opportunity.  It’s simple competition and free enterprise.  In my generation, I don’t know how to serve my family, serve my community and serve my sense of pride and accomplishment without hard work and high stress tolerance.   These are essential survival and self-esteem skills I deem critical.   Wellness experts argue we need lower stress tolerance.  A hopeless workaholic myself, I believe the answer lies in balance.  Often multi-tasking, Gen Y's tasks are not always work related.

 

Regularly invited to speak to CEO’s, HR/OD professionals, corporate teams and media reporters on this topic, I guarantee this is an issue of popular concern.  As always, we must remember that each generation is comprised of individuals, individuals who are exceptions to the baseline rule of any generation.   Nonetheless, we must measure each generation by the median characteristics.

 

I think back to a sitcom which quoted “We were so busy giving our kids what we didn’t have, we forgot to give them what we did have.”  Determined to do things differently than our parents, we Boomers applied different concepts to parenting.  Is Gen Y reversing the process?  We are now pummeled with media discussing the low tolerance, impatience and neglectful parenting skills of Gen Y as they begin to raise kids.  We hear stories of child abuse.  Programs like “The Baby Borrowers” mock this generation’s ability to parent, albeit these couples are very young.  Has my generation created monsters?

 

I think not.  I believe we simply need to step up and transfer knowledge without crushing their idealism and determination to lead a healthier, more well-balanced life.  We simply need to mentor this generation and help them learn lessons, if at all possible, without forcing them to attend the same “school of hard knocks” we did. Yes… I know “that which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”  (Quite frankly, I’m a testament to that old adage.)  However, if they can learn a few things more quickly than we did through our patience and mentoring, hopefully this new generation can keep the progress rolling forward.  Once we transfer the knowledge, I’m quite certain they’ll still run into a whole new set of challenges, but it just might be the “college of hard knocks” with advanced learning to benefit us all.