The Crow

Don't be a Double Loser

 

 Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Terrell owens runs of f the field after a loss on 10/3/2010: courtesy Newser.com

Are you on a winning team, or a losing team? And how does that impact your performance?

Someone said something to me recently that really made me think about this. He mentioned that his sports team wins well together, but they don’t know how to lose well together. And some teams do, which ultimately makes them stronger performers.

If your company is doing well, everyone is happy, there is less conflict; it’s easy to win together, regardless of whether you are a sports team or a company. The true test of the fabric of any organization is how well does your team…or company…lose together?

And this is when the turnover and morale issues start to appear. Stronger managers with more cohesive teams keep their teams intact through good times, and bad. Weaker managers, or those with less tight teams, start losing focus, productivity, and ultimately, talent.

Don’t be a double loser. If you are on a team that is not functioning that great through the tough times, you have two choices: run away (where you very well could end up with the same problem), or do everything you can to make things better. That can involve a variety of actions and yes, it’s going to take some effort on your part. But it’s worth it. If you can figure out how to help your team lose well together, you’ll help them become winners, which is, let’s face it, more fun.

tracy c

Rude to the Receptionist?

 

 
Image courtesy Michael Pujals on Flickr

Didn’t you always suspect it? That how you behave the moment you walk through the company door can make or break your interview?  Well…it’s true.

Many receptionists are an informal part of the interview team.  Hopefully, you aren’t one of those people who automatically dismiss the garage attendant, the waiter, the guy working at the 7-11. If you are, then you probably deserve what you get (or don’t get). Because when you are looking for a job, your attitude in the lobby could very well have an impact on the hiring decision.

The same thing holds true if you are at a level where the recruiters and managers wine and dine you; how you act with the server indicates character, and if you are polite, it’s a mark in your favor. If you aren’t, well, it says something about you. Something you might not want to say to a potential boss or colleague.

If you are lucky enough to get the interview…Make nice with the receptionist! And just in general, be sure to be pleasant to those folks who are in what are often thankless jobs.  It’s the little things that show your character, good, bad or indifferent. Your boss is watching. So is Santa.

tracy c

Should You Lie When You Apply?

Video thanks to BR123 on YouTube; Article referenced was Washington Post

Roger Clemens, the most decorated pitcher in baseball history, was indicted Thursday on charges of lying two years ago when he told a congressional committee that he never used performance-enhancing drugs.

Well, duh.

On the integrity meter, how do you measure up? When is it ok to tell a little white lie, or even a big one, and when do you need to just fess up? If you were convicted of something, do you put it on the application? Or do you leave it blank and hope to God that HR doesn’t notice? Or…do you lie? As Roger belatedly discovered, those little white lies can come back to haunt you.  It’s definitely a gamble.

How convictions are dealt with varies from company to company. Obviously, if you are seeking a job operating heavy equipment, a DUI in your work history is not going to be considered a good thing. However, in a high tech environment, it’s not really relevant. Some HR people might take issue with it, others will let it slide. It is hard to know.

Personally, I think honesty is the best policy.  But I recognize that desperate times occasionally call for desperate measures. If you fall into the category of “I had a questionable conviction” in the past, you should know which of the companies you are applying for require background checks. Most do these days. If they do, definitely opt for honesty; explain the situation that led to the conviction, and proactively do your damndest to convince that HR person that it is in no way relevant to the job you need them to hire you to perform.

Do what makes the most sense for you, as long as it allows you to sleep at night and earn a paycheck at the same time.

tracy c

Lose the Bong, Get a Job

  From Davin G's photostream on flickr

I got a call the other day from someone at a very well respected publication, looking for insight into how agencies bring on interns. I love that. Being asked for my opinion, that is. Because I have an opinion on just about everything! As I thought about it, my advice for interns isn’t much different than advice I might give to other candidates. Here are a few things to think about when trying to score an internship or a job:

1.       Be excited about the opportunity. There is nothing more annoying from an interviewer’s perspective than trying to interview someone who fails to exhibit any amount of enthusiasm for the role, opportunity, or company.

2.       Think beyond the classroom, or your usual space. Have an opinion about what the company does, and what their competitors are up to.

3.       Be prepared. Make an effort to understand how things work in the industry or field you are interviewing in. If you want to work in an ad agency, do some research and try to figure out what the roles look like in your potential department. Don’t just walk in and say, “I’m creative, so I want to work in creative!” Not impressive. Cliché and lame. And yet, alarmingly common.

4.       Show and tell. If you are a creative, have an online portfolio. For everyone else, bring samples of your relevant work, nicely presented, or put together a website. It NEVER hurts.  No matter what level you’re at.

5.       Don’t be too cool.  If you are really tied to your dreads or body jewelry or uber trendy clothes, save as much as possible for Friday night. Dress like a normal person in an interview.  Even if it’s a cool company. If your interviewer is covered in tats, I give you permission to compare notes!

6.       Clean up your social media presence.  Beer bonging or flipping off the person wielding a camera is not considered cool in the working world. No one wants to hire a jackass. Honestly, talking about your political and religious views can also be treading thin ice. Just…Get rid of that shit. People will look at it.  And most of them won't like it.

7.       Be resourceful. Leverage your network shamelessly to get an interview. Neighbors, friends of friends, the guy you met at the bakery. This is how people get internships and ultimately, jobs. Find out via the company site, Facebook or other avenues whether the Company is sponsoring or going to attend any recruiting events…and go! Connect with relevant people on LinkedIn, follow them on Twitter, and strike up a conversation, or ask for an informational interview. Figure out what the company’s email protocol is and get a direct message to the right person.  Don’t just target the HR person. In fact, sometimes it’s better to find a sympathetic manager. HR people get so much of this kind of stuff sometimes it gets missed.

8.       Be yourself. You don’t want to work somewhere that’s not a good fit. It won’t last.

To get a job, you have to do your homework. You also have to create and shamelessly leverage your network .  Good luck.

tracy c

Life Ruined by Love Affair...with Facebook

_{Image by Eric Charles posted by MobiusTripp on Flickr}

She is probably not the first. She won’t be the last. Another woman screws up her life because of a love affair…with social media.

I have mixed feelings about this one. The headline reads, “Canadian Woman loses benefits over Facebook photo”.  Apparently, she was on disability for depression, and the adjuster saw pictures of her having fun posted on her Facebook page, so they denied her claim! Ouch!

On the one hand, if she’s faking it at all, she deserved this if for no other reason than natural selection. How clueless do you have to be to post images of yourself cavorting when you are on leave for depression? Now, if this woman really suffers from depression, I feel for her. And, I understand that one can suffer and still enjoy the occasional outing to Chippendales (not a personal testimony, it was in the article…Really!).  However, I’m not sure I can excuse the lack of forethought that went into her apparent need to post all of this stuff in a public forum, for all the world (including her claim adjuster) to see. What on earth was she thinking? Not much, apparently, except for alternating thoughts of all things sad versus Pete the Policeman removing his uniform in one motion.

As if we needed it, this is just one more example of how our collective obsession with social media can impact lives – not always positively.  For this individual, if she had simply resisted the temptation to tell all and sundry what she was doing, the adjuster would probably have not known she was out having a good time and her claim would have run its natural course. Most of us wouldn’t blame her for trying to do something to get her mind off whatever it was that was bothering her.

But… Like most love affairs, it’s fun while it lasts but the reckoning is a bitch. Think about that the next time you post, my friends.

tracy c

12 Seconds of Fame

going offf on 12seconds.tv

In days of yore, people wrote letters to one another to communicate. If you read Jane Austen novels, you’ll know that it was all very proper and romantic. Then we got phones so we started talking instead. Bye bye letters.

Not long after, we discovered email. Although we still use phones, email has become the primary mode of communication for many. It’s efficient, you can talk to more people faster, and the give and take generally involved in an actual conversation is somewhat limited. It’s a great tool for introverts, since they can avoid the face to face; and it’s a great tool for extroverts, since they can “talk” to a ton of different people at once. It works for pretty much everyone who is not a technophobe.

Enter Facebook … where we can carry on multiple conversations simultaneously. While IM’ing. In real time or delayed. We have substituted quality for quantity.

Then came Twitter, where conversations are limited to 140 characters, where you can amass thousands of “friends” whom you have neither met nor spoken with. On Twitter, you can talk at people for the most part rather than to them. You can do this on Facebook, too. In these tools, conversations become more akin to a spectator sport.

Fast forward to late 2009, where evolution has given us 12 Seconds TV: http://12seconds.tv/.  An invention where, if you are too lazy, busy, illiterate or narcissistic to even bother to pen 140 characters on your keyboard, you can just videotape yourself talking (uh, or whatever, have to wonder about that) for, you guessed it, 12 seconds.

I was tempted to do it but you know, I am wearing my glasses, it’s late, makeup is gone, etc., but you get the idea. I’ll link to some random person’s 12 second spot instead. Maybe it won’t catch on after all, if more people are like me than not!

Is the pendulum going to swing back? Will people begin to find value again in personal interaction? Or are we going to continue to talk at each other, failing to truly connect, and just watch each other with limited attention spans going off for 12 seconds at a time, or talking in 140 characters or less? What then? Who will bring you soup when you’re sick? Give you a hug when you’re sad? Talk with you in depth about anything? Smack you upside the head when you’re being a jerk? Tell you they appreciate you and love you when you need to hear it?

Next up, marriage proposals via Twitter and 12 Second TV.

To hell with it, I am going to go read Pride and Prejudice. Again. Nah, on second thought, I’ll watch it. LMK when someone comes out with the 12 second version.

If any of you elect to try doing a 12 second video resume, I’d love to hear about it!

 tracy c

 

Liar, Liar!

The images of Ralph Lauren’s obviously digitally altered model Filippa Hamilton pissed me off. Why do advertisers continue to promote images of emaciated women as a standard of beauty?  It’s no wonder so many women have body image issues (never mind the box of Krispy Kreme donuts in my kitchen).  Much has been said on this subject, and still, it continues to happen.

I am guessing that if you were inclined to think about it, this trend might annoy you too. No one enjoys an outright lie. And yet, so many people are tempted to do just that on their resume and during an interview.

We all understand why they do it…because the job is a prize and some people will do anything…anything…to get it, leveraging acquaintances of acquaintances to get a foot in the door, and unfortunately, in the pursuit of the perfect job, some will lie about their skills and experience.

The sad thing is, sometimes it works, at least for a while. The white lie about total comp nets a higher salary at the next job; fudging on a title or two nets a better one the next time around; exaggerating skill sets nets a bigger role. Temptation is easy to succumb to. I get it.

But, besides the fact that karma will in fact find a way to catch up to you, this is not a good strategy for long term success. If, as a candidate, you misrepresent yourself in some way, the truth will come out one way or another, usually in terms of leadership’s disappointment in your performance. They thought they were getting someone they weren’t. This doesn’t really do you any favors in the long run.

The best strategy is to be honest. Yes, edit your resume to be flattering! Use action words. Emphasize your strengths and accomplishments. After all, it is ok for models to wear makeup, maybe even some shapewear, we all expect it.  And when you do land a job, it will be the right one.

Meanwhile, I’m going to have a couple of donuts as my own private FU to Ralph.

tracy c

Love and Basketball...

 

Video from CBS via YouTube

 

Employees and HR professionals alike often wonder…What should we do about the collision between personal and professional when people to act like, well, people…at work, complete with flaws and bad judgement?

Enter exhibit A, Ron Artest. Artest is a Laker - that’s a basketball team for those of you not so into the whole sports thing. But stay with me! Artest has been rightfully characterized as a not so nice guy (for more, read Fear the Beard's rant). Why? Because a guy named Kyle Slavin, in the open and non-hierarchical world of social media, decided to send an open letter to Artest, welcoming him to the team and also giving him a bit of constructive feedback. Artest, rather than ignoring it or providing an innocuous response, decided to say,

No law when it comes to me.
I let you type critics write and I just keep it hood.
That will never change.
I am not kissing no ones ass because I'm in LA. Suck a c***.

...Only, he didn't use stars for that last bit. Nice open door policy! I will say, after the guy said essentially, hey, I am just trying to be helpful, Artest responded and apologized. But, Artest is a person who does stupid stuff because he is not the sharpest tack in the pack. And he doesn’t use apostrophe’s correctly, but that is beside the point. Needless to say, the reactive HR people and lawyers at the NBA decided on Wednesday they’d better get a policy out on social media asap.  A memo was sent to teams on Wednesday telling them that cell phones and other communication devices can't be used from 45 minutes before game time until after players have finished their responsibilities after games, including halftime. I am not sure what this changes. Is he going to be less likely to pop off an inappropriate response when he’s not in the midst of a game? I suppose, at the very least, it ensure he’s not screwing around during a game, which is something.

Most workplace policies were created because someone failed to exercise common sense, somewhere along the line. As an employee…what do you think about this? Would you be cool with a policy that said no personal communication (email, twitter, facebook, etc.) during work hours? As an employer…is this the kind of policy you should implement in your workplace?

Exhibit B, the other big news this week that had the HR “ouch!” written all over it, was David Letterman’s multiple indiscretions with interns. Besides the fact that it’s obnoxious and he’s gross and you can’t help but feel a tiny bit sorry for him that this whole thing blew up the way it did, really did the world need to know about this…It begs the question: What is the right and wrong about consensual relationships at work?

Some companies have a policy against it (“it” being fraternization between employees), but imho that’s sort of like telling the sun not to rise. So to speak. Adults are going to do what they do. Whether the employers like it or not.

So as an employee, how do you manage it when you can’t resist that relationship with a coworker? Do you tell HR? A manager? Anyone? And as the employer…what do you do when you find out one of your execs is, er, taking liberties with the help? Most companies do have some sort of policy around this, and rightly so...It really doesn't do to have people in a position of power wielding it in the bedroom and the boardroom.

I always remind managers, at least, of the risks of lawsuits (which alas are very real). Other than that…honestly, I have better things to do.  It really is common sense driven. I’m sure that’s how the bigwigs at CBS felt about Letterman until that guy decided he’d try to make some money of the pathetic adventures of Letterman’s apparent ongoing midlife crisis. Interestingly, none of the women were complaining, or if they had, it had been brushed under the rug long ago.

Between Artest and Letterman, it’s clear that there is one commonality: all it takes is one (or two) bad judgement calls to turn a harmless act (i.e. email, sex, a tweet) into a very visible nightmare, creating a tsunami of policies from the HR and Legal team to try to deal with it, not to mention damage control from the PR firm.

My advice? Use common sense,  keep your hands to yourself, and don't go off in a way that would offend grandma...or the legal department. Don't be the person that causes yet one more policy to be written.  I bet both Artest and Letterman are wishing right now that they weren't in that spot. But, they're both human, they'll probably make more mistakes, and they won't be alone. I call that...Job security.

tracy c