Houston: My Net Isn't Working

Aside from the frustration experienced by job seekers from what feels like the "black hole" in responding to postings on job boards (and there is enough on that subject to provide fodder for posts for the next year!) the next major pain point often seems to be around the dreaded word for anyone in transition: networking.

Yes, they have read the stats be they from our own Executive Job Market Intelligence Report or a zillion other sources all of which report that at the executive level somewhere between 50% and 80% of the time, networking is what made it happen. Our own experience has been consistently at the 70% level which is one of the reasons we invest so much time and energy to provide our members with the ways and means to expand their personal and professional networks both on and offline.

[And BTW, ExecuNet networking meetings around the country and in Canada are open to anyone, be they a member of ExecuNet or not].

In any case, armed with all this overwhelming data, why is it that I continually hear from people who say to me, "Well, this networking stuff may work for someone else, but it sure as heck isn't working for me."

After talking with such a person for a while, it usually becomes pretty clear pretty fast that they are still on a learning curve when it comes to really understanding what networking is. They are still at the stage where they think that networking is a noun.

In their mind networking is a "thing." They haven't quite gotten the message that really effective networking isn't a program ~ it's a process. Said another way, networking isn't a formula that you plug in and a job falls out at the other end. What is it? Short version: It's a process of building a relationship.

As you might guess when I say that, heads nod in agreement, but when we talk further it becomes clear that the "agreement" is really more about "understanding" the concept on an intellectual level not on a "personal/emotional" level, to which I usually says something like: "This just in, real relationships are personal and are based and built on trust not concepts."

After that, not a lot of time passes before I hear something like: "Okay Einstein, and I do this how"? To which I usually respond by asking some questions like: "How have you built relationships in the past"? "Were these relationships where you weren't worried about getting something"? "Did the relationship start with you trying to help this person"? "Where was your focus - on them or yourself?"

So what I am trying to do here is actually stumble to a point: behavior is driven by attitude.

If you enter a relationship where "getting" comes before "giving" people will sense it and if that is the attitude they continue to see, what you will have, best case, is an acquaintance and probably not one whose face will light up at the mention of your name.

I know this sounds horribly naive, but I can't help it; for good or for ill it seems to be in my DNA. To over simplify, at a macro level, I think there are two types of people running around the planet: givers and takers.

Now for sure, the "takers" get more ink (think too big to fail?) and I don't have stats to prove it, but my life experience suggests that at least when it comes to making a career move, the "givers" make changes a lot faster than the "takers."

Technology Is A Means, Not An End

Like many other businesses with a major online presence, we do lots of "live" programs which means there is no time for a do over. A few weeks ago, we experienced a techno glitch during one of our online programs. It was a sold out show and halfway through, our web meeting provider lost our connectivity. Not only was access lost, so were a few pounds from the stress.

Fortunately, these problems have been few and far between. Since ExecuNet was founded in 1988, obviously the business was built on the old fashioned forms of communication. We migrated online 15 years ago when the Internet was still a fledgling outlet.

Having gone through this migration, over the years we have seen firsthand how the Internet has the power to bring people together. Our members report deep and long-term networking bonds with each other, without ever having met in person. I also doubt that any of us would argue that contacts, referrals, introductions and advice are instrumental to getting help with both business issues as well as career management challenges and I would be lying if I didn't say that is has been deeply rewarding to be part of an enterprise where one of the fundamental goals is to help foster these relationships.

On the other hand, incidents like this one when we got "unplugged" serve to remind me more than ever, that as wonderful as all the technology is, businesswise or career wise, it is still about relationships that are built on trust.

This is one of the reasons why, even with all the electronics today, we still tell people, there is no substitute for face to face. It is also why our networking meetings are open to anyone be they members with us or not. Indeed, the whole purpose of the meetings is to give all those attending one more venue in addition to everything else one would hope and expect they would be doing to expand their personal and professional network.

All we ask is that people come with the attitude and spirit of helping each other. If you haven't checked out a meeting, come join us. You can always check out the upcoming events in your area by just clicking here.

It's Getting To Be That Time of Year

I don't know about you, but in my case I can tell you that when they were passing out the genes for creatvity I was either sick or on vacation. It's a good thing for me that my wife got more than her fair share otherwise both our house and my home office would look like it was decorated in an "early Salvation Army" motif, and that's only on the personal side.

On the business side they simply have stopped asking what I think about the design of anything be it print or electronic. After all, back in the day, I thought the Edsel was cool looking.

All of which is to say that I hold anyone who has design talents in awe. Not just because of the professional talents they bring to what they do, but also because of the frustration they must feel in dealing with something so subjective. How they ever get clients to agree with anything is beyond me.

If you have read this far you are probably wondering (and rightfully so) what, if anything, this has to do with the title of this post? Such as it is, here's the link:

A few days ago we got a notice from the Connecticut Food Bank that a donation had been made in ExecuNet's name (specifically on behalf of our VP & Executive Director Lauryn Franzoni). The donation was made by Rob Hudgins the president/creative director of a graphic and web design firm down in Florida called 50/50 Design. Rob has been a prime design resource for us for years.

As it turns out, Rob's company marked their 10th anniversary this past July, and to mark that occasion rather than spend lots of money on self-serving hoopla, he decided to go to each of his clients and have them select a charity of their choice to which he then wanted to make a donation on their behalf as his way of saying thanks to the companies who have helped bring his business to where it is today.

When I learned all this, it got me to thinking that before any of us know it, the holiday season will be here (Sam's Club has Christmas stuff out already and it isn't even Halloween!) and lots of businesses big and small will be thinking of how to say thanks to their customers/business partners, etc.

While it is true that the economy is slowly trying to pick itself up off the floor, as we all know for millions of folks through no fault of their own, getting off that floor is still many months away.

So, if your company is looking for a really nice way to say thanks and give some extra help to those in need, you might want to borrow Rob's idea when someone asks "does anyone have any ideas of what we should do this year."?

Members vs. Subscribers

One of the really interesting things about having been around as long as we have is that we have experienced what it is like to be part of a community both on and off the Internet.

As many who read this blog are aware (i.e. both of you) I started ExecuNet in 1988. Hell, now that I think of it, there were fax machines then and we still thought technology had gone beyond amazing and then along came CDs and left us speechless. Time flies as they say.

In 1995 we silently and with great trepidation turned on our website, we were concerned about a lot of things, not the least of which was losing the relationship with our members who up until that point could not become a member without actually talking to a real live person and/or getting hundreds of emails a day from high school kids with nothing better to do.

The email overload turned out not to be a problem then, but it is now with the never ending SPAM for Viagra, Rx offerings from Canada and easy money opportunities from the President of Nigeria.

While executives can now join online, we have held firmly to our belief that really effective networks/communitites (be they for business or career or both) are built and based on real relationships not simply a collection of Vcards.

I was reminded of this recently when I thought about a panel I was on some years ago wtih Craig Newmark of Craigslist and Laurel Touby, the founder of Media Bistro. The subject we discussed was the building of online communities.

Even though none of us had talked to the other about what we were going to say. The common thread was that each of our sites had grown by personal referral and personal involvement with our "community."

“Word-of-mouth” is obviously impossible to actively control, but when it works in your favor, the positive results can be quite powerful. ExecuNet was, as mentioned above, formed well before commercial Internet usage, and obviously at that time we relied heavily on referrals from our members.

Now nearly twenty-two years later, we still credit recommendations from our members for much of our success and longevity.

In today's world, the value of word-of-mouth buzz is compounded by the speed in which news travels over the Internet. My desktop blinks constatly as the "tweets" pour in.

No matter how people get here, however, I have always felt that personal referral was the most powerful advertising there is, and that is evidenced by the fact that the community we have with ExecuNet is based on the commitment that comes from being a member. That was -- and still is -- the key factor in why personal referral remains the way most of our members get here.

One of the first questions many people who contact us for the first time ask is how we measure our effectiveness as a resource for senior-level executives? My response is usually along the lines of "How did you hear of us?"

The answer more often than not is "A friend of mine told me about you." To which I then respond, "Well, you have now found a good part of the answer -- by reputation. Most people I know don't refer people to something unless they feel there is value there. I don’t, and I wouldn't expect you to either."

There is a real difference between being a member of something and simply a subscriber. Subscribers transact; members TRUST.

Putting America Back to Work

Bill George is, as many already know, a professor of management at HBS and the former chairman and CEO of Medtronic. He also wrote the 7 Lessons for Leading in Crisis. In short, he is one of those people who as the old E.F. Hutton commercial said "when Bill speaks, people listen." And well they should.

If you didn't see his piece in the past week's edition of BusinessWeek it is well worth the read. If you are short on time, the Cliff's Notes version is that he shared some ideas of what we should be doing as the country keeps moving toward rebuilding our economy and creating sustainable jobs.

Specifically, he argues that we should be focused on "innovation, entrepreneurship, small business and new company formation." which if you believe in history seems pretty hard to argue against.

To prime the pump he thinks that if tax credits for long-term investments were raised along with making the current tax credits for R&D permanent it would go a long way to creating jobs in the aforementioned areas.

Moreover, he points to renewable energy, information technology and healthcare as logical places to start which also may seem obvious to many but these too are hard to argue against.

When I had finished reading Bill's op ed piece and put BW down, I was reminded again of just how important innovation is and how it really is and has been the engine that drives job creation, and if we don't make a concerted effort to provide an environment that fosters innovation far more so than is currently the case, "Do you want fries with that?" could well become our epitath.

Perceptions Are Real to Those Who Hold Them

Our banjo playing Chief Creative Officer, Sue DiAmico, is, among other things, a multi-tasker extraordinaire, so I wasn't surprised when she found the time in her cyber travels to forward a piece that appeared on the eMarketer Digital Intelligence site. The article was entitled: Job Candidates Both Hurt and Helped by Social Networks. As the title implies, the information about you on the Net can be a two-edged sword.

As I continue to contemplate the electronic world in which we live and while I am fascinated with it all, at least when it comes to the "digital dirt" issues that face some of the Gen X and Y folks, I not only feel for them but actually feel lucky that I was born way too soon.

Indeed, once I had read the piece, I could not help but think of the fact that if some of the stuff that I did when I was in college (or high school for that matter) ever made it to the Net, and I was a hiring manager and saw it or read about it, I wouldn't have made a phone call to me, much less hired me.

No matter where you are philosophically, when it comes to the debate over the separation of business lives vs. personal lives, if you are looking to make a change on the business side and whereas you might put points on the board for freedom of expression when the cover of an album on your Facebook page is a picture of you and your buddies standing by someone's VW that you just put on their porch last Halloween, points, not paychecks will be about all you'll get.

I don't know how many clichés there are or ways to say "You only get one chance to make a first impression," and for sure there has been plenty written on the subject (e.g. when I goggled "digital dirt" I got 3,600,000 hits); and yet even in this super competitive market I can't get over how we still see way too many people head out into the market before they are really ready to make sure that the impression they are going to leave be it verbal, print or electronic is at the quality level that they not only would want for themselves but which others would expect.

I am not talking about the crazy stuff that most of us did. If it's out there, it's out there, and while there are still plenty of folks who are at senior executive levels today who have been eliminated by recruiters due to stuff the recruiter has found online, for the most part at senior levels it isn't the skinny dip photos that gets your resume shredded. It is much more likely to be sloppy spelling, poor follow-up, poor communication skills, poor grammar, or maybe a resume that looks like it is a "before" sample.

With the pressures facing organizations these days, they don't have and won't take the time to get a second impression, so taking the time to make sure that "the product" is ready for prime time is not only time well spent, it is absolutely essential.

The Biggest Bang for the Buck

If one of your goals as a leader is to become a better communicator, there is no better time than now to do just that. Indeed, given the present economic envionment, if you are a leader there has never been a time where it is more important for you to communicate to those you lead.

As we all plan to spend the balance of 2009 moving beyond the recession and into some sort of recovery, the fact remains that the economy and its instability are top-of-mind for most employees. Therefore, it’s crucial to keep the lines of communication open as you navigate your company through these uncertain times. Employees are counting on you for that.

Consulting firm Watson Wyatt surveyed employers about communicating in this rough economic climate. Among the topics employers said they are addressing include company performance and solvency as well as job security — issues employees say are of the most interest to them. Hardly surprising.

How is this communication occurring? According to the survey, the most popular methods seem to be town hall meetings, staff meetings and face-to-face talks. Even email and company intranets are effective tools. Apparently the survey was done before Twitter came on the scene or it probably would have had that as a source as well.

Regardless of the channel, the good news is that the majority (62 percent) said they’re not going to stop. In truth, I was a bit disappointed and surprised that the percertage wasn't higher, but 62% is a good start and hopefully once times improve they will not go back to "business as usual" and allow the "grapevine" to communicate for them.

Why was I disappointed even with 62%? The answer is because if I was the head of HR and the boss came to me and said your budget for the year is $1.00 and you must pick only one item on which to spend it, I would tell him that I was going to spend it on communications with the staff. That's how important I think it is and here's why:

The real driver for productivity doesn't come from the application of technology. The technology is just the tool. The real difference maker is the committment level of the individuals in whose hands the tools are placed and my belief is that committment comes from the motivation that is bourne out of trust and good news or bad (especially bad) the enteprise that levels with its people - wins.

This is not to say that there aren't any number of other elements involved, of course there are, but if these are not bulit on a foundation of trust, long term the organization will find committment replaced by people who are simply going through the motions.

And before you say "Hey Dave, tell me something I don't know," explain to me why more companies don't do it? Maybe it's because as my mother used to say their leaders have the "morals of an alley cat?"

Looking Ahead

As most readers who know ExecuNet are aware we have been up to our ears in the career and business issues impacting senior level business leaders for 21+ years.

Among other things this means as an organization which is focused on the executive level we have been around for the last three recessions and because of our relationships with not only our executive members but our RecruitSmart members as well we hear a great deal of the business buzz both positive or otherwise, and it is no secret that much of what all of us have been hearing for a long while falls into the category of "otherwise."

Nonetheless, we keep our radar open and operating and going back to March of this year and "otherwise" notwithstanding, we were reporting and seeing and hearing about "green shoots".

I am happy to say that this has continued, and if you are interested in a take on the economy both current and going foward gleaned from our somewhat unique perspective, you might want to take a few minutes (less than five) to hear what our President (and resident economist) Mark Anderson's thoughts are as he looks at where things stand now and what he sees in the coming months, all of which were captured by ExecuNet TV and posted on YouTube just yesterday.

Agree or disagree, feel free to comment.

Hiring Roulette

Among the all-time debates with no answers such as: nature or nurture; chicken or egg and of course DiMaggio or Mays there remains the nagging one of hiring or retention.

What is tougher, making a good hiring decision or retaining "A" players once you find them? These are issues that probably have been studied, surveyed, poked and prodded by more organizations than have sworn off applicant matching systems, attitude surveys and exit interviews combined, but that doesn't mean that we don't keep on looking for the answers even though much of the time the results in the real world make us think that our resident guru is Monty Python rather than McKinsey.

But undaunted, we keep trying, and even though the study will be a year old come October, the Corporate Executive Board and more specifically the Recruiting Roundtable which is a subsidiary of CEB released the results of a significant study last October which they say was the first of its kind in that they tried to actually identify the key reasons why more than 50% of the hiring organizations or the new hires themselves regret the decisions they made.

When one thinks of the time, energy and money that is focused on the issues of hiring and retention, this is not a number that generates optimisim on either side of the debate.

In any case and for sure, the issue is certainly not going to be solved here, but nonetheless I thought the study was of sufficent interest to share in the event there were those who might not have seen it or like me, had forgotten about it as we are wont to do. Even so, the data has lost none of its importance to any one of us who sit on either side of the desk:

The study details several contributing factors, including that 40% of new hires report the information they received about the job when they were applying was less than accurate. Overall, only half the time will organizations and new hires achieve a win-win outcome where both agree that they made the right decision.

"Given the high cost of early career turnover, organizations cannot afford to make the wrong hiring decisions," says Senior Director Donna L. Weiss. To save millions, the Roundtable aims to help organizations reach that win-win outcome closer to 100% of the time. After analyzing data from more than 8,500 hiring managers and 19,000 of their most recent hires, the Roundtable identified three important reasons organization fail to consistently hire high quality candidates:

(1) they over-rely on candidates describing themselves rather than having them demonstrate what they can do,

(2) they don't follow a consistent, evidence-based selection decision process and

(3) they fail to provide the candidate with enough information and 'experience' about what the job is really like.

Based on detailed quantitative analysis and over 100 interviews, the Roundtable has identified 10 key strategies that organizations can deploy to improve their selection processes.

One recommended approach is to move beyond the traditional selection process to include an experiential component to the process. Weiss adds, "By providing candidates with an experience that is either 'on-the-job' or that is key to job success, organizations can better observe a candidate's capabilities and a candidate can get a better sense of what the job is really like. This is one way to drive to more win-win outcomes."

If you felt the information in the study was interesting and/or helpful, on Friday, August 21st at 1:00 p.m Eastern, you might also want to consider joining Leah Haunz Johnson who is the Senior Director of the Corporate Leadership Council of CEB’s Human Resources Practice. Leah is going to be the featured presenter on an ExecuNet Webinar called: Motivation vs. Malaise: Driving Engagement in a Troubled Economy

About the Recruiting Roundtable

The Recruiting Roundtable provides research, training, and tools to help recruiting executives and their teams make decisions that achieve the highest return on their investments. Roundtable services address key recruiting challenges in areas such as recruiting strategy, sourcing, candidate assessment, diversity management, employment branding, onboarding, outsourcing, metrics, workforce planning, among others. Additional information on the Recruiting Roundtable can be found here.

About the Corporate Executive Board

The Corporate Executive Board (NASDAQ: EXBD) provides analysis and authoritative guidance to the world's most successful organizations. With a member network of over 80% of the Fortune 500, the Corporate Executive Board delivers indispensable resources for timely decision-making on all issues related to strategy, operations and general management. For more information you can click here.

I have purposely left the information on both the Recruiting Roundtable as well as CEB here in case some readers might be becoming aware of one or both for the first time. If you operate in or care about hiring and/or retention space either from the corporate side or the staffing industry side these are sources for thought leadership that merit your continued attention.

Choose One from Column A, B, or C

I guess I could have labeled this post as "A Public Service Announcement" but decided on the A,B,C theme since I wanted to draw readers attention to three totally unrelated but I thought interesting posts that came across my CRT this past week.

Since I stole GL Hoffman's gruzzle graphic (I know, I don't know what that means either, but that's what he calls them) so I guess I'll start there.

I, along with a cast of thousands, have been following GL for quite a while. He is, as those who read his What Would Day Say blog a very clever and insightful guy. In this particular post, I thought he demonstrated both of those traits very well as he gave us his take on the recent Beer Summit.

Not only is the visual pretty neat, what he had to say about it all was equally powerful I thought, so if you didn't happen to catch it, you can check it out here.

Next on the list was a post on ERE by Matthew Charney entitled Bullet Point to the Head which I am still laughing at. Given the well-known and often not displaced frustration that candidates have with the lack of communication with the recruiting world, Charney provides some "insights" that are not only very funny but since most humor comes from truth exaggerated some "learnings" that might help relieve some of that frustration.

You can read it here, but for sure you need to be sitting down otherwise you may fall down laughing.

Finally, if you have not been following John Sumser's latest venture for RecruitingBlogs.com in which he is attempting to ID those who he and/or others feel are the top 100 influencers in HR and Recruiting it's a fun pass time to watch the list grow.

It is sort of like those lists that ESPN or SI put together every once in the while of the top 100 pros of all time in whatever sport you want to name. The lists, of course, are subjective but so far as we know not influenced by direct bribes, and when folks like Peter Clayton are on the list, it helps to provide comfort that it's hard to argue with the choices made especially if you happen to agree with them.

As far as I can tell, at this writing, the list is up to 20 or so and who knows who the other 80 will be, but it is the sort of thing when you are old enough to probably recognize most of the names that appear you feel "qualified" to say to yourself, "Yeah, I buy that!" or "How the hell do you suppose he/she made the list?" That's what makes them fun, but be that as it may, I was happy to see Peter's name.

In my book, he certainly deserved the recognition along with many of the other names of folks that I have come to know at some level over the years and whose work I respect as well, including of course John himself.

On the other hand, I don't know where they got Peter's picture from, but I am guessing from his high school yearbook. [Just kidding Peter.]

Feedback from the Real World

One of the advantages of being the first and oldest at something (ExecuNet was founded in 1988) is that when you start collecting data and war stories you can truthfully say "trust me when I tell you....because I can prove it."

So "trust me when I tell you" ever since day one when we spoke to each and every person considering joining this network as well as the wealth of survey information that we have gathered since, that by far and away one of the most profound points of frustration for anyone in a search and senior level executives in particular is the deafening silence that most get when they respond to an ad, be it online or off.

There is a great deal that has been and could be said on this subject and many of us have done so over the years, but I am always looking for more resources to help in setting the right expectation level when it comes to the something like this very sore subject.

Unfortunately, a lot of what has been written on this topic while directionally correct is so filled with platitudes and excuses that in terms of resonating with the reader it simply falls pretty flat. So, when I find something that doesn't and more importantly meets our standard of pragmatism or as we like to say around the office truly is "feedback from the real world" I want to do all I can to make our members as well as others aware of it because there isn't enough of it out there.

Okay, so write this down How to Work with Headhunters by Nick Corcodilos. Many readers of this blog I am sure will recognize Nick's name if for no other reason than he too has been around for a good long while and has a well-deserved following (including myself) of his blog called Ask the Headhunter.

So why am I flogging How to Work with Headhunters? Easy. It speaks my language and if you go to the site Nick has set up to buy the book, I think you will quickly see what I mean.

Words of one syllable, really worthwhile advice from someone from the recruiting world who is willing to be transparent in an effort to try and help people really not just understand the whats and whys, but more importantly the HOWs in dealing with a whole host of issues that few job hunters really understand but which frustrate them by the thousands.

The book contains the answers to 62 "in-your-face" questions, and "in-your-face" is the right phrase. Nick's writing style sort of suggests to me an image of Howard Cosel with a sense of humor. Said differently, you may or may not like what he has to say sometimes, but it is very real, actionable, and as such should help a lot of people deal with "the system" in "real world" terms, and that we like and happily recommend.

People Will Always Pay a Premium for Quality

If you are familiar with ,ExecuNet then it will come as no surprise for you to know that we collect trend information in the executive career management arena.

One of these collection channels we call the Recruiter's Confidence Index. The RCI is a monthly survey of the recruiting community and includes both retained and contingency firms.

The core of the index is focused on their feeling about the market over the next 3-6 months. If you are interested in the latest you can click here.

In doing the survey however, we often will ask some other questions based on trends that we have either read or hear about on a day to day basis.

Recently, we wanted to check and see what the executive recruiting community folks were feeling were their "top business challenges" at this point in time vs. several months ago when the answer was a resounding "what business!"

Among other things, I was struck by the fact that doom and gloom on the nightly newscasts and the front pages notwithstanding, the #1 issue came back as: finding qualified candidates.

To explain: I was struck that this was the top concern not because this is a new issue. Finding top tier talent (what's the buzz word these days - "A" players?) has always been a major challenge, and remains so. [Hence the title of this post] No, what got my attention was not what was on top of the list, but what wasn't even in the top three - specifically the hunt for new business.

This isn't to say that firms that specialize in the sectors that have really been hard hit (Financial Services, Credit, Construction,and Housing) aren't still feeling it big time, for many are, but as a whole, at least based on what people were telling us in the last couple of months, the sky may still be very cloudy and producing occasional severe storms; nonetheless, they are starting to see some light on the far horizon.

And in case you were wondering, #2 was covered by the phrase "client and business issues" (whatever that may mean) and #3 was "relocation." Certainly one can tie the latter to the housing market, and it would also make selling a candidate tougher for sure, but the fact that recruiters' phones were starting to ring (if not off the hook but still ringing) was a good sign.

What are you hearing?

Invent, Invent, Invent

Okay, I admit it, I am a Tom Friedman groupie and if you fall into that category then you will instantly recognize the title of this post as being the title of the Op Ed piece that Friedman wrote for the Sunday NY Times at the end of June.

If you haven't seen this piece then as both as a business leader not to mention a concerned citizen I very much suggest you check it out.

If you don't have the time, the gist of the article is about what Friedman (and others) feel is needed to overcome our current economic woes.

Essentially, the point he makes is that the benchmark UVP that the U.S. has is its creatvity, especially in the creation of breakthrough technology. Not that this by itself is "the answer" as we all know, but it is certainly an essential element.

To help underscore his point, there is what I thought was a great quote at the beginning of the piece in which Friedman quotes Craig Barrett, the former chairman of Intel, who when Tom asked him what he thought the "way out" was said: "Any American kid who wants his driver's license has to finish high school. No diploma - no license. Hey, why would we want to put a kid who can barely add, read or write behind the wheel of a car?"

A tad of an over-simplification for sure, but an attention grabber that helps us to foucs on what I think is the real elephant in the room - the state of education in our country.

If you buy the argument that the world is well into a knowledge driven economy then you would certainly get the point that Barrett was making and one with which I am sure Friedman agrees.

A sample for those who like stats:

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development places the United States 18th among the 36 nations examined, USA Today reported ...

Headed to the top of the heap is South Korea where 93 percent of high school students graduate on time compared with the United States where 75 percent receive their diplomas.

And these are just percentages and say nothing about the "quality" of each. I often wonder if in many high schools they don't give away as many diplomas as are really earned.

I also often wonder why it is that the American business community and most especially those with global footprints don't do far more to lobby and $upport an education system that is desperately deficient.

To say that it is in their self-interest is the understatement of week!

Treadmill Thoughts

"The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all." H.L. Mencken

I suppose I am not unlike most other Americans in that I undoubtedly take the freedoms that I have pretty much for granted. Not that I'm proud of it, but when I look in the mirror I have to admit that it isn't something that I go to bed at night or wake up in the morning thinking about.

That said, as I was on the treadmill at the gym this morning and watching the news and listening to the commentary surrounding our latest poster children for ego driven greed (i.e. Bernie Madoff and Allen Stanford) two thoughts kept surfacing in my mind and as they did, I kept getting madder, going faster and sweating more.

The first thought as I've already said was the anger I felt at listening yet once again to the how these two guys had betrayed the trust of others.

The second, however, was about how they had thrown away the opportunity that living in this country had given to them.

Maybe the second thought came because the 4th is this weekend when we are all reminded of just how fortunate we are to live in this country. It was this second thought that led me to the Mencken quote up top of this post.

Since I have spent my entire career in the business world, and most of that interacting with senior level business leaders, I have had my share of experience in dealing with the "scoundrels" on a personal level as well as reading and hearing about the all too many others (i.e. Ebbers, Lay et al.)

But as I was "cooling down" from my workout, and thinking about these SOBs and what they had elected to do with the freedom and opportunities that living here had given them, I thought to myself that as bad as they were and are, in terms of those who lead businesses in this country (both large and small) the over-whelming majority of them don't really need to be "regulated."

As I think the Mencken quote suggests, laws are written to try and protect the rest of us from the few who choose to use the freedom we enjoy to satisfy their own greed as opposed to using the opportunity they have been given to give back in a way that helps us to grow as a society and country.

Maybe all this sounds rediculously idealistic, however, I have certainly been around long enough to know that like it or not, we actually do need the laws and regs to protect us from the preditors. Caveat emptor hasn't been around as long as it has just because back in the day someone thought it was a clever phrase.

But even with all this "evil" surrounding us why am I optimistic? Because I really do believe that there are far more leaders out there (even lots whose first name might be Bernie or Ken) who lead their departments, divisions, SBUs and companies who have taken advantage of the freedoms we enjoy to lead in a way that make us proud to not just be part of their organization but proud as well to be a citizen of the greatest country on earth.

Enjoy your holiday.

Successful Leaders List

HSM is an organization that has a richly deserved reputation for putting together conferences that rank among the very top tier of executive education for C-Level leadership.

Last year's World Innovation Forum held in New York featured any number of A-List names, one of which was Andrew Zolli who was the closing keynote. Zolli is the founder of Z + Partners, a futures research and strategy consultancy. He also is the force behind an annual conference called Pop!Tech whose focus is on thinking, science, and technology.

To say that the business world has been searching for the Holy Grail of leadership traits, chacteristics or themes is an understatement of the first order, so when someone of Zolli's stature is willing to share some of his thoughts of the subject, it is a list worth sharing.

In his remarks, he offered up the following as the most common behaviors of successful leaders:

• Making the top of the organization accountable
• Embracing user-centered design everywhere
• Treating employees and consumers the same
• Constantly placing a lot of small bets in small increments, then managing and collapsing them
• Leveraging ambient, unused architecture
• Finding and embracing lead users
• Investing and incenting with cash
• Investing in employees before consultants and customers
• Copying existing best practices, but sparingly
• Leveraging innovations outside the company
• Embracing a portfolio management approach
• Systematically scanning for weak signals – the fringe things today that are important tomorrow

Certainly is as good as any list I've seen lately. How does it stack up against your own feelings and experience?

Work Matters

I am a fan of Robert Sutton which hardly makes me unique in that I am sure his fan base runs well into the thousands if not tens of thousands. Sutton's own blog is called Work Matters. He also writes for The Huffington Post when he is not writing books.

Sutton's latest book as most know carries the attention getting title of: The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't. If you are among those organization leaders who are always looking for the ways and means to keep moving toward a work environment where the only yelling tends to come when celebrating success, and you haven't checked this book out, put it on your summer reading list!

Anyway, the purpose of this post wasn't to flog Sutton's book but rather to point readers to his blog and a posting titled: The Asshole and Umpire. It was posted on the 15th.

Colorful language aside, it is an interesting commentary on conflict resolution and among other things helps to reinforce the time-honored rule of effective management 101: Praise in Public, Punish in Private.

Poco a poco se crusa el mar

The Fed numbers report that came out today were described by CNN Money.com as "positive signs."

Jobless claims came in at 601,000 which while a big number at least was less than the prior report. In addition, retail sales showed a gain for the first time in three months.

Eveyone has his/her own "touch points" that they watch to try and read the economic tea leaves. One of the ones we have been using since 2003 is what we call the Recruiter Confidence Index.

For those who may not be familiar with the index, it is based on a monthly survey of executive search firms conducted by ExecuNet. Designed to forecast job growth at the executive level, a reading above 50 percent indicates recruiters expect the number of search assignments in the next six months will increase. Independent analysis of the RCI has confirmed it is a leading indicator for the executive employment market.

We post the index on our public website so if you are not a member, you can still check it out by clicking here.

Better still, we have recently twisted Mark Anderson's arm (Mark is ExecuNet's President and Chief Economist) to add some of his own commentary. If that's of interest you can hear what he has to say by clicking here or by doing a search on ExecuNet on YouTube.

All of which is to say, that while things like 600,000+ are still distrubingly a lot bigger than any of us would like, and a gain for retail sales for the first time in three months is hardly the hockey stick we all would wish for, at least it is one more sign that while we have a long, long way to go, maybe we are on the right path.

Let's hope.

Another Chicken & Egg Story

When it comes to the economy it has always been about confidence (or so the talking heads tell us). To hear them tell it, it is almost like a self-fulfilling prophesy. If we as consumers think things are getting better, they get better. If we start to lose confidence, then the charts go the other way.

Every day in the papers (what few are left) or on the crawling headlines on CNBC or MSNBC not to mention tons of tweets, we get the word:

Index on pending housing sales has gone up. (yea)

Oil prices are heading up again. (boo)

Fewer banks failed this month. (yea)

Number of people filing on-going unemployment claims declines for first time since January. (yea)

Unemployment rate jumps to 9.4% (boo)

and on it goes....

So what are we to believe? Beats the hell out of me, but in case you hadn't stumbled across it yet, and since everyone likes to look at employment as a key indicator, check this out:

Recruiter Confidence Climbs To Highest Level In Eleven Months

ExecuNet's Recruiter Confidence Index (RCI) surged 16 points higher in May, as the executive search industry's outlook for the employment market improved for the third consecutive month amid signs that economic conditions are stabilizing. The RCI now stands at its highest level since June 2008.

Introduced in May 2003, the Recruiter Confidence Index is based on a monthly survey of executive search firms conducted by ExecuNet.

Designed to forecast job growth at the executive level, a reading above 50 percent indicates recruiters expect the number of search assignments in the next six months will increase. Independent analysis of the RCI has confirmed it is a leading indicator for the executive employment market

Yes, I know that the unemployment rate hit 9.4% and will likely keep going up for a while, nonetheless I am very encouraged by what our RCI is showing. Not just because it has made it back above 50, but more importantly because we firmly believe that it has proven to be a leading indicator as the copy above states.

I also know, based on our penchant for "instant" fixes, that there are still millions who are struggling to work through these tough times, and that the positive signs that we see (be they home-grown such as our own RCI data or whatever), the "good news" isn't going to happen fast enough.

Those who know me would probably tell you that I tend to be a half-empty type, but that is not my feeling at this point.

Manic? No. Euphoric? No. Feeling better? Yes. Press on, press on, press on!

Never Be Afraid To Hire People Who Are Smarter Than You Are

In terms of "followers" neither Seth Godin or GL Hoffman need any introduction in either the blogosphere or Twitter worlds.

However, and in case you missed Seth's post a "Clean Sheet of Paper" and GL's value added, the links are included here as a public service.

Far be it from me to try to value add to what these two guys have to say, but the thought struck me that in a sense what both were talking about is (at least for me) one of the most uncomfortable tasks any of us have to do as managers.

If you're a Jeopardy fan, the category is Management "D"ilemmas. The Answer: The toughest thing for most managers to do consistantly and well.

Question: What is delegation?

Is that what you wrote down?

When In Doubt

Given the "latest in the series" as they say (i.e. Madoff and Stanford) many of the talking heads both on and offline have dusted off all the stuff they wrote when they were writing about Ebbers, Lay, et al each of whom were desparately jocking for space in the papers, on blogs and the FBI's Most Wanted List.

I guess I probably should include the likes of Citi, BOA, Freddie Mac, etc. as part of "the list" too, but I think I am still too ticked off to deal with it. I am still at the "let's draw and quarter them" stage.

Anyway, every time I read or hear about this stuff, I just can't help wondering why such a simple and fundamental set of values seems to have been lost by so many of those who used to carry around the title of "leader."

I figured if everybody else was doing it, maybe I should dust of my "when in doubt" file and see what I had saved. What turned up was the following from Norman Augustine.

Here's what he had to say:

How can one decide what the ethically correct thing to do is? Answer the following questions:

1. Is it legal?

2. If someone else did "this to you," would you think it was fair?

3. Would you be content if this were to appear on the front page of your hometown newspaper?

4. Would you like your mother to see you do this?

I suppose that instead of this list he could have just said why not try the one that starts with "Do unto others..." but I guess he thought that one was already spoken for.

Anybody out there have any suggestions who we might send these guidelines to who might have missed the memo?