One's Origins

According to popular dictionary entries, erudition can be characterized as “having or showing great knowledge or learning”. I am much more fond of the characterization of an erudite provided by Nassim Taleb in The Black Swan (Random House, Copyright 2007, 2010 Nassim Nicholas Taleb).  Mr. Taleb describes an erudite as”…signaling genuine intellectual curiosity. It accompanies an open mind and the desire to probe the ides of others.  Above all, an erudite can be dissatisfied with his own knowledge, and such dissatisfaction is a wonderful shield against Platonicity*, the simplifications of the five minute manger, or the philistinism, overspecialized scholar.”  By this description of erudition, I assert myself as an erudite.  Mr. Taleb also adds, “Indeed, scholarship without erudition can lead to disaster.”
After nearly 15 years as a consultant of one form or another, I still find myself longing for newness in just about every aspect of my life.  I am rich with analytical ability and yet I thoroughly enjoy helping others reach whatever it is that inspires and fulfills them.  I find myself more and more relishing in the softer side of leadership.
Over the past few months, I began to explore the possibility that a Ph.D. be my path to deeper self fulfillment.  I marvel at all I read about the behaviors and conditions behind why we make the decisions in life that we do.  Many researchers and authors have already given us much fodder to stimulate thinking.  I was beginning to wonder if my contributions existed in background unearthing new knowledge as well.
I have had some amazing conversations with many academics, professors and other Ph.Ds. Their collective insight has been amazing!  My key take-aways are that as a Ph.D. candidate you learn to amuse yourself.  What is meant by this is that your inquisitive nature drives you to explore new things. A plus for me here as I have oft enjoyed amusing myself.  I also learned that along the continuum of knowledge, where at one end it is created and at the other, it is common among the masses.  A lot happens to transfer knowledge from non-existing to commonly known.  The Ph.D. mindset more often than not (like everything else, there are exceptions) spends nearly all its time at the beginning of the continuum.  Just to the right of that there is compilation of the new knowledge. Next we have dissemination and application and finally common acceptance.
After much thought, I believe that compliation and dissemination are where my aspirations lie.  Though I do find myself perpetually questioning all that is around me including my own knowledge.  Who knows, I might pursue the Ph.D. after all.  I can’t wait to learn how all this unfolds.
(*Platonicity: a philosophical term usually used to refer to the idea of realism regarding the existence of universals after the Greek philosopher Plato.)

We are half way finished our tour (thankfully over the half of the elevation gain is behind us). As a team, so far, we have raised just short of $150,000. About 3/4 of goal! This is amazing and we are very excited. Many of my friends and family have been very supportive and for that I am grateful beyond words. If you have not yet had the opportunity to do so, please check out my pledge page at http://bit.ly/dAqDg0. Also. Updates are available on our blog at http://bit.ly/cGN1vH. Thanks again all. Be well.

I can’t help but to often reflect on this Shakespearean quote. “Man, proud man, drest in a little brief authority, most ignorant of what he’s most assur d, glassy essence, like an angry ape, plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven, as make the angels weep.”
I am in the middle of two books on the topic of human motivation. One was written in 1993 titled “Punished by Rewards” authored by Alfie Kohn.  It was a landmark publication at the time if its release and today it is just as appropriate for evoking  thought on how the use of rewards to manipulate desired behavior often backfire – so to does the threat of punishment to discourage unwanted behavior.  This applies to children and adults alike.  Indeed the likely reason it applies to adults is because rewards and punishment were so pervasive in our childhood.
The second book is “Drive” by Daniel Pink. Mr. Pink points to several other research studies beyond the work of Mr Kohn that show we in fact are supplying employees with misguided motivational gimmicks that simply do not provide the deeper inner-drive to excel and as a result do not deliver the real long-term results we seek.
I have also recently read Samuel Culbert’s “Get Rid of the Performance Review”  While Mr. Culbert only touches on the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivators, he does offer very practical suggestions to strengthening the bond between supervisor and subordinate.
Returning to the quote by Shakespeare with which I began this post, in short I offer as a challenge to all professionals who operate in the capacity of managing others that you view your relationship more as a partnership.  This opens the door to a greater level of trust between the two of you.  I also will postulate that if you hire someone whom you feel requires micro-management, are you not from the onset questioning your own hiring capabilities?  The much more nefarious scenario would be that the hiring person seeks someone to control.

I believe we broaden our view of the world by educating ourselves and keeping an ever open mind to the notion that what we believe to be true is only true for us and only in that moment. Education for me (and I certainly do not mean the system known as education but rather the activity known as learning) is analogous to the improvements in technology in digital cameras. We go from telephoto to wide angle to take in more of the landscape of life, and we also increase our resolution or pixel count so we have much greater clarity. Now, to return to the lexicon of pre-digital photography, our pictures our developed by the crucial art of putting language around the we we see the world so that we may effectively communicate with other people.
To return to my opening sentence, no two photographs, even taken with the same camera, are ever completely identical.

The idea of Employee Capitalism came to me upon reading two articles recently.  First, the January-February 2010 issue of the Harvard Business Review titled, “The Age of Consumer Capitalism”.  The author, Roger Martin argues that the two prevailing models of capitalism, managerial capitalism and shareholder capitalism are flawed and he discusses the notion of consumer capitalism.

As a synopses, managerial capitalism entered the scene during the height of the depression in 1932.  This form of capitalism posited the belief in management’s role in driving the desired business results.  Some four decades later, we saw shareholder value capitalism take root.  The underlying belief was that if shareholder wealth was optimized, society on the whole would benefit.  What we have learned says Mr. martin is that shareholder value is driven by expectations and due to the cyclical environment in which the markets exist, are not indefinitely sustainable.

The second article (much more recent) came to me by way of a Facebook posting from Harvard Business Review with a link to a blog post from the Wall Street Journal. (Gotta love the inter-twining nature of all these social networks.)  The article was titled HCL: Extreme Management Makeover and was posted on Facebook the day after my blog post Leaders who Serve was published.  This article asserted the concept of “Employees First, Customers Second”.  By trusting the creativity, skills and intentions of employees, your customers will be the beneficiaries of added value.  Value, as with beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.  If employees are in the limelight, I believe they will amaze you.   Click here for the WSJ blog article.

With these two articles along with my own belief in Leaders who Serve, Employee Capitalism seems like a logical and promising next step.  I certainly see a formidable theme developing.  Our best assurances for satisfied customers is by focusing on the needs of our employees.  And satisfied customers is the only way I know to beat the competition.

On July 8, I posted a blog article espousing my affinity and belief in the concept of Leaders who Serve.  This was an idea first placed into my ear many years ago at a former employer.  The inspiration to write some thoughts about this concept only recently came from a twitter update by a fellow Business School Alumnus, Jose Palomino. In his post Jose cited an article by Glenn Magas titled, “Servant leadership is a new management concept”.  I was remiss in not acknowledging these two gentlemen and I wish to thank them for their insight and inspiration.  Mr. Magas’ article can be accessed by clicking here.

The title of this blog post is one of the core tenets from the credo for managers and above at a employer where I enjoyed 11+ years as a business management consultant.  At first glance an oxymoron might appear to exist as if the leader and servant are polar opposite roles.  I could not disagree more.  I believe they are indeed one in the same and I embrace the concept of the servant leader with boundless enthusiasm.

According the Marcus Buckingham in “The One Thing You Need to Know” leaders are very distinct from managers in that the latter expends more energy focusing in on the individual and identifies ways to motivate him or her in the way that proves most effective for that individual.  The role of the former by contrast is all about inspiring the collective group and generating enthusiasm to drive to a better future.

I purport that for either to be effective they must serve the needs of those they lead and/or manage.  I recognize that such needs might include calling out where people are miscast and exploring possibilities for change.  (As a tangential note, it is surely uncomfortable – yet sometimes appropriate – to suggest that a fit is not right and in the end the just response is to explore alternative options outside of the organization.)

In the absence of any changes in personnel it is obligatory for the those towards the top to serve the needs of those who support their initiatives and objectives.  The only foundational element I know to facilitate this is humility.  Leaders are no less limited by their own humanness and we cannot ever forgot that.

I am in no way positing that leaders should lower their expectations or allow their strategies be guided by the attitudes of their people. In fact, I am saying the exact opposite.  A leader must be steadfast in their pursuits. The manner in which they communicate and execute says everything about their view of the people who support them.  And that will determine sustainability.

We will never observe sustained dedication by demanding. The only way to realize sustained commitment is by treating people with dignity which fosters trust.  How people are treated is the indispensable ingredient to servant leadership. To me, the leader who serves will be most successful in optimizing sustained output from the people in their team or organization.

From at least Philadelphia to Northern New Jersey this past weekend, there were some ferocious wind and rain storms.  Power service was disrupted for many and no doubt flights were canceled.  I perhaps should have anticipated this when I left the house this morning at 5 AM for 7:15 AM flight.  (My commute to Philadelphia airport is about one hour.)  This Raleigh, NC flight is rather routine for me and I believe I have the ‘system’ down cold.

Well, not this morning.  At 6:15 AM, the security lines where – no exaggeration – about 10 times as long as they usually are at that time of day.  (Anyone familiar, I am at the terminal D/E checkpoint).  The line snaked around several times beyond the roped area and continued past the moving walkways that moved passengers back towards baggage claim and the parking garage.  I then realized that the storms had indeed impacted weekend flight schedules and this was the aftermath. That was it. I arrived an hour before take-off and was going to miss my flight.

Well, actually, no.  I was amazed how well TSA kept things moving and I don’t think I stood still for more than one solid minute at any one time.  And when the line did move, it moved a considerable distance. By the time I was though security and gathering my carry-on belongings it was 7:02 and the monitors displayed my flight as ‘Boarding’.  I walked briskly to the gate and boarded with many others who only one hour earlier wondered if they too would be making alternate plans due to a missed flight.

I don’t know if a one-time good experience is enough for some people to broadcast accolades for someone or a group, but I will certainly tip my hat off to the TSA staff at PHL terminals D and E this morning. I was certainly impressed by how fast that line moved. (Of course, we must hope that doesn’t suppose that they rushed through their screening procedures).

Now if we can only get the baggage handling system redesigned into something resembling functional we might have an airport not worthy of the scorn beset by many inbound travelers.

As an aside, the Philadelphia to Raleigh trip, I believe, is usually just a back and forth.  Well, today the plane was continuing on to Tampa Florida and was half full with people donned in Phillies gear – likely those Florida bound the day before.  How much I wanted to stay on board and continue on to see a little Spring training in Clearwater. Good luck Phils in 2010!

It is widely held that first impressions are usually correct.  Why is this?  Once we form an initial opinion about someone, we naturally process future observations of that person in ways that support the first or initial impression. And, we unconsciously discard any observation that is in conflict with our initial observation.
I am suggesting that our subsequent experiences of people are simply biased by our first.  If so, then of course our first impressions are always correct.  Later impressions are fueled by the first.
I believe that first impressions are in deed not always accurate.  We are well served to keep an open mind in subsequent early experiences of others.  Rely more on a collection of experiences rather than a single experience.