Celebrating Diversity
To create a positive global community, we need to meet three key challenges

By Marshall Goldsmtih

The rise of the global community brings many opportunities and challenges. In the past, community members could communicate with each other, trade with each other, and share a common culture. In the future, communication, trade, and culture will become much more global. (read more...)

Tie Recognition to Human Resource System

By Bob Nelson

So, you’ve got an effective recognition program in place. Employee morale is up. Customer service is up. Productivity is up. Congratulations! Now what? (read more...)

Would You Hire You?
Keep Your Job-Even in Tough Times

By Bev Kaye

The job market looks grim. You’ve decided not to look for greener grass right now. In
fact, you’re planning to just hunker down and play it safe. But how safe are you, really? (read more...)

Celebrating Diversity (^ top)
To create a positive global community, we need to meet three key challenges

By Marshall Goldsmith

We can’t assume that instant information will lead to long-term quality of communication. Today television addiction is a huge problem. In the future, media addiction (including the Internet) may well pass drug addiction and alcohol addiction as a social problem.

The advantages of global trade are well known. Increased global competition leads to higher-quality products and services at lower prices. Consumers can have access to an incredible diversity of goods that may have been produced anywhere in the world. Poor countries, which have lower labor costs, can “catch up” by doing labor-intensive work that would cost much more in wealthy countries. As the poor countries become more efficient, they gain the purchasing power to buy more goods and services from the rest of the world. The removal of trade barriers leads to an increasingly efficient market.

While, in theory, global trade will create greater product diversity, in practice it sometimes creates greater homogeneity. The “shopping streets” in major cities around the world now look much the same. They tend to have the same clothing, music, and even food. While the stores may have products from more countries, they are becoming the same products. People worldwide are buying the same global brands that are globally advertised, marketed, and distributed. Another cost of global trade may be an increased lack of loyalty and identification with a larger whole.

Increased access to information means that more cultural opportunities are available to more people. Cultural access leads to a better understanding not only of art or music, but also of people. Repressive regimes that encourage hatred for others restrict the flow of communication. But by communicating with people of diverse backgrounds, we quickly learn that negative ethnic stereotypes are invalid. Open communication can lead to a world where diversity is celebrated and the ethnic hatred and violence is reduced.

While the global culture has great potential benefits, it can also have great costs. People around the world are much more likely to look alike, act alike, and sound alike. We are becoming as concerned with “cultural extinction” as we are today with the extinction of plant and animal species.

Attempts at stopping the flow of communication, trade, or culture may produce short-term successes but are doomed to failure for two reasons: 1) the Internet is global, and so information that is censored in one country will be quickly duplicated in another country; and 2) almost all brilliant young people who are developing new technology believe in the free flow of information, do not like censorship, and are not intimidated by government edict. Attempts to protect noncompetitive industries or workers produces a short-term benefit but does not stop the development of better and cheaper products. Attempts to force trade restrictions on unwilling partners are destined to fail. Attempts to restrict access to any product often leads to greater desirability.

Creating a Positive Global Community

To create a positive global community, we need to meet three key challenges:
1. Reaching out to humanity and avoiding isolationism. In the global community, it is easier to reach out and easier to become isolated. Superficial communication with everyone can lead to meaningful impact on no one. We need to be inspired and educated in the value of trying to benefit the world, not just ourselves. As the opportunities for huge individual achievement and wealth form, we need to better recognize people who make the transition from success to significance. Community heroes need to be celebrated based upon their skills in giving—not their skills in taking.

2. Celebrating diversity and avoiding conformity. Our ability to adapt to changing situations is largely a function of our diversity. Language leads us to view the world in different ways and to have different approaches to making decisions and solving problems. We need to encourage diversity in language, culture, and lifestyle to ensure our own survival. Powerful countries must not try to make other countries become like them. Residents of the global community need to celebrate the fact that “different” may be synonymous with “fascinating,” “enhancing,” and even “necessary.”

3. Building long-term value and avoiding short-term stimulation. Residents of the global community have almost unlimited access to sources of pleasurable, short-term stimulation. Television, movies, interactive games, virtual-reality experiences, chat rooms, and other options are available at a low cost. Yet few of these activities produce any long-term value. We need to inspire and educate people about the value of “investing” for the future. Long-term value is the result of vision, creativity, innovation, and hard work. We now have access to tools with the potential to dramatically increase our productivity, but we also have access to countless pleasurable distractions that lead nowhere.

Challenges and Opportunities

The global community has the potential to become a nightmare:
•A world of conformity: with billions of people wearing the same baseball caps, baggy shirts, jeans, and shoes, speaking the same language, and laughing at the same jokes.

•A world of short-term stimulation: with countless hours spent on mindless television, video games, and a virtual reality that begins to eliminate the real human experience.

•A world of isolation: with lives spent in front of a screen, striving for personal excitement and gain with little thought for others and even less effort devoted to helping future generations.

The global community has the potential to be a dream come true:
•A world of diversity: with billions of people being able to communicate, trade, share cultural experiences, and appreciate each other, with access to a range of products, services, religions, cultures, philosophies, and languages.

•A world building long-term value: with countless people working together to advance our culture, building on what has been learned in a manner that is positive, efficient, and productive.

•A world reaching out to humanity: with people helping each other in ways that could never have been imagined, celebrating each other’s success, and helping less fortunate members of the community become more productive.

Will the global community of the future become a nightmare or a dream come true? No doubt it will be some of both. The increase in global communication, trade, technology, and culture will continue. By inspiring people and educating them in the values of celebrating diversity, building long-term value, and reaching out to humanity, we can build a global community that is more like a dream come true. LE

Marshall Goldsmith is an executive coach, author, editor, and founding director of the Alliance for Strategic Leadership. (Amended from The Community of the Future, edited by Hesselbein, Goldsmith, Beckhard and Schubert, Jossey-Bass, 1998) marshall@a4sl.com.

Tie Recognition to Human Resource Systems (^ top)

By Bob Nelson

So, you’ve got an effective recognition program in place. Employee morale is up. Customer service is up. Productivity is up. Congratulations! Now what?

For recognition efforts to last, they should be tied as much as possible to other human resource systems, including hiring and recruiting, orientation and training, and evaluation and promotion.

Hiring and recruiting: Because it is easier to hire the right attitude than it is to change long-established wrong ones, having good recognition skills needs to be one of the criteria for hiring new managers. For example, the Walt Disney Company aggressively recruits people-oriented individuals regardless of the position. Other hiring considerations pale in comparison to this fundamental value for the organization. Likewise, Southwest Airlines’ policy is to “hire for attitude, train for skill.”

Orientation and training: Management training in many organizations tends to focus more on business planning and operations at the expense of “soft skills” related to managing others. In fact, few organizations have a new-manager orientation that emphasizes the importance of employee recognition. By providing specific training on recognition, organizations can overcome the objection by low-use managers that they “don’t know how to do it.”

All employees at Disney are required to attend Traditions 101 and learn the values of the organization --- including the importance of how people are treated --- and what those values look like in practice. Managers and supervisors at AlliedSignal (now a part of Honeywell) are required to attend a four-hour recognition training session that includes real-job situations for discussion and role-playing. At CalPERS, the State of California retirement system, training in recognition skills is provided to all employees --- not just managers --- to encourage the use of recognition throughout the organization and at all levels.

Evaluation and Promotion: If recognition is important to the organization, it makes sense that managers be evaluated for their use of it, and that people skills be a criterion for any promotion. In their performance reviews, managers at Disney are valuated in part on their ability to manage, develop, and encourage their employees. Managers who aren’t considered competent people-developers receive additional training, and cannot advance in the organization until they demonstrate their commitment to the people side of their job. At AAA of southern California, one-third of a manager’s annual bonus is based on immediate employees’ quantitative rankings of the manager’s “soft skills,” such as being available to listen to and help employees, being supportive, and having an interest in creating development opportunities.

As these examples show, tying recognition to human resource systems helps to increase the longevity of your recognition efforts. Through hiring and recruiting, orientation and training, and evaluation and promotion, momentum for the recognition program can be built ---- and rebuilt.

Would You Hire You? (^ top)
Keep Your Job – Even in Tough Times

By Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans

The job market looks grim. You’ve decided not to look for greener grass right now. In fact, you’re planning to just hunker down and play it safe. But how safe are you, really?

Today it would clearly be a mistake to believe that just because you’re in the job, you’re out of danger. The next downsizing or company reorganization could force you to compete for your own job. The truth is you are, in essence, rehired by your boss, team, and organization every day. So, would you hire you? To be able to answer yes, you’ll need to continually:

Perform: Make yourself indispensable (or close to it) by consistently doing good work, developing your skills, and dealing effectively with others. Manage your attitude, stay positive and build a reputation of someone who can be counted on—in good times and bad.

My boss told me, before the recent downsizing, that I would not be laid off, even though my department would lose several good people. He said that everyone agreed that they needed ten more people like me. Good performance doesn’t guarantee security, but it sure helps!

Prepare: Develop an internal resume and keep it updated. Where has your career taken you? What have your key accomplishments been? (Quantify them.) How up-to-date are your skills? What unique qualities and abilities do you bring to your job? How’s your internal network?

My boss showed me resumes of recent hires. I couldn’t believe how resumes have changed over the years. I updated mine and included examples of successes, including money I saved the organization and new customers I won. I got a promotion and, while the resume wasn’t the only reason, it did show that I was current and competitive.

Package: Consider your self-presentation and your reputation in the organization. How do others see you? (Do they see you at all?)

I asked a friend at work to tell me how I’m viewed by others in the organization. I asked her to give me five adjectives (and not all positives!) she’s heard or thinks others would use to describe me.

She did it. (What a good friend). Now I know my reputation a little better. I can decide to change it if I want.

Promote: Launch a low-key internal marketing campaign. How can you promote yourself in your own organization (without bragging)? How can you interact more with others? How can you make your accomplishments more visible?

I never bragged about my accomplishments. I figured if I did good work, everyone would know. I don’t believe that anymore. I now send a note or email to my boss every time I have a success. I do it in the spirit of ‘keeping him informed’, but I know it serves me well too. I recently won an award for outstanding customer service, and I think keeping my boss informed helped me get it!

Some people believe in the “lie low” theory during tough economic times and corporate restructuring. Beware of that strategy. The next time senior executives and human resources have to create a lay off list you’ll want the “buzz” about you to be that you are crucial, indispensable, a “keeper.” And the next time a great opportunity surfaces your name could rise quickly to the top of the internal candidates’ list. Remember to perform, prepare, package, and promote yourself. Don’t leave your own job security to happenstance.

*********************************************
JobDig provides eTreat every week as a free service to you.
Click here if you wish to unsubscribe. If you have comments or suggestions, please email: editor@jobdig.com