TOP TEN WORST CEO TRAITS

Ever had an awful boss? I'll bet he or she had some or maybe most of these bad traits:

Control Junkie: Has a tough time truly delegating or letting go. Has an opinion about everything.

Being Right: Even if your boss is usually right, it feels bad to think that you are generally wrong.

Rude: Bosses too often fail to say please and thank you, and they don't take the time for basic politeness.

Gives Blame / Takes Credit: Bad bosses take the credit for what goes right, and blame others for what goes wrong.

Bad Listener: Already formulating a response before you are done talking, because what you have to say doesn't matter. Even worse, doesn't even make a pretense of listening.

Withholding: Boss expects you to know and share everything he/she needs to know, but doesn't tell you enough and keeps secrets.

Anger: Why are bad bosses so mad? Perhaps they don't like themselves too much and see their own bad traits in others. In any case, bad bosses feel free to fling anger at you whenever they need to vent.

Kills Messengers: Tells you he wants to know things, but if it is bad news, or even not what he wanted to hear, jumps down your throat.

Win/Lose: Never read The 7 Habits (Covey) and doesn't understand Win/Win and the art of compromise.

Negativity: Glass is half empty, and always has a reason that your ideas won't work.

So to end on a positive note, I hope you have a boss who: Delegates well, appreciates input, is gracious, recognizes contributions, listens and hears you, communicates clearly and transparently, is even tempered, accepts bad news well, wants you to win too, and can always see the bright side.

Employee Retention in Recession – Part II

My last post was about the importance of keeping your best people, especially in a recession. Today I’ll focus on what motivates an “A” player. These factors need to be in place in order for you to keep your top people loyal. “A” players are motivated to stay with you when they are:

• Inspired by your vision and leadership – make sure you articulate this clearly and stay positive in your communication.


• Impressed by your business plan – You do have one, right? A roadmap to success must be part of your plan.


• Part of a great team tackling a great challenge – an “A” player wants to be surrounded by other high quality teammates, who are operating at optimum performance.


• Believing in the company’s potential to succeed – would you bet on your chances? Your “A” players can calculate the odds too.


• In a stable, secure environment – have you been making people feel safe or not so safe in your comments about today’s situation?


• Able to make a difference, to count – because you have clearly spelled out their objectives and shown them how the achievement of those aligns with corporate goals.


• Have the right compensation – this is last on the list, because if the factors above are present, compensation becomes less important. The “right” compensation for a key manager includes incentives for their own performance objectives.

Take care of your people, mostly through excellent communication and the right attitude, and I believe they will stay loyal and take care of you!

Gr7 Communication

The majority of high level candidates we talk to these days communicate exclusively by cell phone. With all the advancements in modern technology, I am astonished that so many people rely exclusively on cell phones for communication. The connections can be so poor that it seems like we’ve gone back to tin cups and string.

Dan Neil has a great article in the LA Times Business Section today about cultural language innovations, and how even verbal communication is going away, with people texting each other instead of talking. Try Googling texting dictionary and see the amazing number of responses that can educate you on text shorthand.

UCLA Professor Emeritus Albert Mehrabian did a famous study of communication that revealed 55% of human communication is non-verbal (body language, facial expression), 38% is sound – (tone, inflection, pacing, volume, etc.), and only 7% of in-person communication is content. Extending this theory, when we text, we only send 7% of our communicative ability.

With people getting busier and busier, it is harder to meet people in person, and sometimes even to get people on the phone. I’m a little concerned that over the next generation we will lose some of our abilities to communicate effectively.

Dan Neil points out in his article that Gr8 is texting shorthand for Great, and if something is only pretty good, but not great, people will text “Gr7.” I love that! We are creating word formations that are specifically meant not to ever be spoken, but only texted! That’s so Gr1. In case you didn't get that I am joking, I was only able to send you 7% of my communication!

What I Learned Growing Up in a Bronx Housing Project

One of the great ironies of the last few weeks is that while my Harvard-educated wife (BA and JD) had classmate acquaintances on the short list for the Supreme Court nominees, the ultimate nominee, Yale-educated Sonia Sotomayor was someone with whom I actually had a special connection: she and I both grew up in the same Bronxdale Housing Project at the same time.

At that time, in the 50’s, many of us saw the move to the new “Projects” as a step up. My family came from a tiny 2 room basement flat, and I saw our 6th floor Watson Ave. apartment as heaven! We got to play on new monkey bars and swings on the concrete play area – the grass was chained off - but it was better than playing in the street. Sonia has spoken to the media on how her upbringing informed her adulthood and her court decisions. Here’s a bit of what I learned:

No to Prejudice: The projects were a melting pot, and at my level (kids), we were indeed all equal. I developed first hand the evidence to reject the shocking and hateful first generation American xenophobia and bigotry that I heard from my parents and their friends. When you are taught “filters”, trying to be completely egalitarian is work, but it is worth it!

No to Elitism: The people I went to school with who dressed better, my cousins whose families owned houses, weren’t better than me. Poor is as poor does (to paraphrase Forrest Gump). We all put our pants on one leg at a time. This has helped me to never be intimidated in business.

Work Pays: People who worked hard moved up. I got my first job at age 11, working in a butcher shop (probably illegal), and the day I turned 12 I signed up to deliver the NY Post, a much classier and cleaner job! I always had money in my pocket that I earned, and the resulting work ethic has served me well.

Direct Communication: In my neighborhood, no one tiptoed around the outside edges; we didn’t invest too much time in “being polite.” We told it like it was; recognizing that there were consequences (but also much value) from being candid. I call the result of this learning “Bullseye Communication.”

Attitude is Everything: I’ve quoted Victor Frankl before, who famously said, “Everything can be taken away from a man except the last of human freedoms, the freedom to chose one’s own attitude.” Thinking As If you will succeed goes a long way to ensuring success. Just from looking around and seeing what worked and what didn’t work, I knew I’d go to college and be a professional, even before I got to the 6th grade.

I’m proud to have grown up in Bronxdale, and in other poor neighborhoods in the Bronx, and to have learned from the experiences. I do think those experiences are valuable in a Supreme Court justice too! Growing up poor, living in a diverse community and having first hand knowledge of the struggles and triumphs of those striving to emerge from poverty is indeed valuable, in any profession or way of life. For me, one significant result is that I can appreciate the little changes that happen for people, in their career especially, that can have a profound impact. Often I have the chance to help those changes along, and I value those contributions all the more.