Around the fourth day after Mr. Sperm meets Miss Egg, differentiation begins.  (If you slept through high school biology, differentiation is when cells start to get specialized.)

Ok, biology lesson is over.  I was just mulling over how week four of the Interns could be subtitled, The Week of Differentiation.  It isn’t that they weren’t fully formed individuals when they arrived.  It’s how we see them and assign work to them that’s undergone some subtle changes.

Lindsay is continuing to work on social marketing optimization because she’s a star Communicator.  Not surprising.  This line from her Role-Based Assessment pretty well covers why I wanted her for this project:

She will quickly make contacts throughout the organization and get to know almost everyone. She is especially cooperative and will also try to do almost anything she is asked to do. Her focus is on interpersonal interaction and trying to get everyone to work together harmoniously. She won’t do this by direct means but by attempting to broker the arrangements that bring people together in a positive manner. As a result, she is likely to be respected by those she has contact with.

But we needed to get the database cleaned up so despite the fact that she also had this in her report: “She will not want to do organizational tasks…”, there she was in the conference room with some others, working on exactly that task, with music emanating from someone’s laptop, a pile of snacks, and the sunniest of good natures.

Meanwhile, Kartik, the Action Former, whose report included the following, managed to reorganize, clean up, and optimize my consultant certification files.  Here’s Kartik in a nutshell:

This candidate is the type of employee who can be found in the front of the group with marker in hand, developing a list of things that need to be done or important points or assignments. He is the consummate organizer. The key is that he does not organize for the present but as a way of getting things ready for the future. His style is one of handling many things simultaneously. He believes that multi-tasking in a rapidly evolving environment is essential to keep on top of everything.

The others too have their unique qualities and it’s amazing how much more productive they are when we recognize them, give them work they enjoy, and celebrate the results.

It just makes good business sense.

Happy ending: Lindsay has a project beginning Monday that is totally about communicating with people, while Kartik will get a great new organization project!

Every so often I think about succession planning.  My own.  But I’m not planning on leaving.  I’m planning on sharing.  Let me explain.

I’m thinking that a lot of CEO problems are caused by people who think they can do a huge job well, all by themselves.  Up till now, our company has been small enough that I could do a credible job myself.  But as we grow bigger, I find it makes much more sense to work with someone else as sort of an extender.  If it was on a shelf at the supermarket it would be called CEO Helper.  I prefer the term VisionMeld(tm).

So how do you find someone to share?  Role-Based Assessment to start, for sure, but I think  asking the candidate to write a Vision Paper really should be part of every recruiting process.

The Vision Paper is a way of explaining to the leadership team of an organization what it is that they are expected to accomplish, the purpose for the venture.  It does not go into precisely how they to achieve it since that isn’t a problem for the CEO to solve alone.  It begins with a bit of the history behind the product or service and goes on to simply describe the end, the goal or the long-term, desired outcome for the organization.  Where most mission statements are vague and general, the Vision Paper is personal.  It’s the best measure of the ability to be an inspiring leader I have ever seen.  And the knack of inspiring and motivating others to follow your dream is the sine qua non of the successful CEO.

I asked a friend what he thought.  Ever practical, he concurred and pointed out that it’s a way of getting to agreement as to what the performance expectations will be.  “You’re just trying to find someone who can do the job.  To lead a company successfully, you need to know where you’re going and the Vision Paper is your roadmap,” he said.

I guess I’m just more mystical than he is.  For me, the energy that goes into writing a Vision Paper reflects back on the author in an almost magical way. If it resonates, you probably have a good basis for a VisionMeld(tm) – and for sharing and succeeding.

It’s like having a learning lab.  Not for them, for us. They apply online, take their Role-Based Assessment and we know where they’ll fit.  Then the surprises start.

Take Lauren, the Action Mover/Communicator.  Could there be anyone more suited to talking to customers and getting them what’s good for them?  So I figured she must be majoring in marketing or communications.  Was I ever wrong!  Some well meaning counselor convinced her that she should stay in accounting after she expressed her doubts.  No matter that she didn’t really like the work, though of course she is smart enough to do well in any course.  She’d already invested time, and her parents’ money, in the accounting track and it was the prudent thing to advise her to continue with it.

I knew she would be fantastic at any task involving connecting with people in a meaningful way and quickly getting what was needed.  And I have not been disappointed.  In a few months I’ve seen her do all manner of amazing things.  Even though I knew it was in her DNA – that she would inevitably do these things and do them well – it was like watching a bud bloom.

Now her internship is coming to an end and I wish I could get her and the counselor in the same room and remind them that real life is not always like in books.

Now that I think of it, this internship thing is just like speed parenting.

Happy Labor Day to all who are off today.  As an entrepreneur (who at one time in my life was not only a union member, but the grievance chairman for my location!) I’m celebrating my ability to work today.  And mostly, I’m celebrating that at least one of my team is right there with me going back and forth over the web working on presentations with me.

A couple of hours ago I was working on a presentation for a panel on talent management.  I found an old handout I’d used before and sent it to Jackfor his opinion.  He IMed back, “I have something better” and this is what he sent:

Develop and Keep Your Best Employees. Follow The Ten Commandments for Running an Organization:

1. Assume that your staff has the best interests of the organization in their intentions.
2. Be forgiving, even when they make mistakes.
3. Be merciful when they make big mistakes.
4. Be compassionate: don’t place them in tempting circumstances.
5. Be gracious, even to those who don’t return it.
6. Be slow to anger when people disobey.
7. Be abundantly kind and assume people mean well.
8. Never renege on your word.
9. Remember the times when people do something right.
10. Always allow people to repent their error, carelessness or apathy and forgive them.

At the end of the list was my name.  I don’t remember writing it though I have no doubt that I did.

This is the advantage of having a Curator on any corporate team.  Curators are amazing.  They know what’s worth saving and what’s worth tossing out and when they save something they can actually find it.  They’re the corporate keepers of the wisdom and I fear they are an endangered species, allowed to leave organizations without passing on the keys to the kingdom.

The Curator

Thank you, Jack valued friend and team member.  You make this entrepreneurial life so much easier.

I was the dinner speaker at a SHRM group just before Memorial Day weekend, which was also the beginning of our move to our new office space – a week long project involving more technology than I ever want to think about again! So while my dear management team was directing furniture placement and dealing with phone issues, I was getting to talk about my favorite subject, talent management and development across the generations and, more important, their Roles. It wasn’t a huge crowd, but I met a real HR star.

As the dinner conversation went around, someone at my table had a sad story of a plant closing, a large plant employing many people for whom that’s been their only job.  Interesting, in the light of statistics that show length of tenure for most populations is decreasing.  There was no budget for outplacement services but she did the most amazing things to help people find new jobs, people who’d never had a resume and had language and social barriers to overcome in the process.  She saw nothing special in what she was doing or what her efforts were accomplishing, not just for the people but for their community and in a broader perspective, for our economy.  She just did it because it was the right thing to do.

We chatted a bit about her own career aspirations and I gave her my card.  I just read this email from her:

“I wanted to take a moment and share with you something that happened this morning. We spoke briefly last night after the meeting regarding my own situation and challenges with our plant closing and my search for the “right” position.

“This morning I was working on yet another resume for a plant employee and one of the employees came to my office. He is an assistant supervisor, union position, very conscientious and respectful. He is an amateur baker on the side and makes beautiful cakes for all different types of occasions. He came to me this morning and said “I have something for you” (in very broken English). He was grinning ear to ear and I said “You have something for me?” and then he said, “I really appreciate you and what you’re doing for us and I baked you a cake”. Well, it was 20 minutes before I quit crying. The icing was purple, my favorite color and the only thing I could do was hug him because I couldn’t talk. He then invited me to a picnic he is having at his house for the employees in a couple of weeks and he left.

“Right now I have to focus on my current activities here and not be sidetracked by my own job search. I think it would be very selfish of me especially after this morning. Thanks again for your very informative presentation last night. I look forward to speaking with you soon.”

Just a nice reminder that whatever you do, ultimately it’s the relationships that are the most gratifying.  If you’re a recruiter reading this and want to connect to this star, just contact me.  No cake needed.

The cover article of the current issue of Talent Management magazine decries the “cult of productivity” so I flipped to that article first, hoping to find out what’s wrong with me. I always thought of extremely productive people as part of my club, the ones who either work with me or we’d like to have playing with us. (It’s true – sometimes it’s hard for me to distinguish between working and playing with this crew!) But no, nothing like that.

Productive people, according to the author, run the risk of burnout, resentment, chronic fatigue, etc. The only problem I could see was that there wasn’t one word on how working with the right other people in a team leads to productivity with joy. The basic, simple, Contextual Management™ rules are:

• Use Role-Based Assessment™ to construct the team so you get synergy
• Fulfill every person’s every motivator – money is important but it is in no way the only one (hint: their Role will tell you a lot about how to do this
• If you’re the leader, remember that your team comes first – make sure you’re feeding a culture of trust, respect and faith that the job will get done

So if you’ve always wanted to join a cult where you could work beyond your capacity, synergize with other productive people and change the world for the better, apply at The Gabriel Institute.

We’re always looking for a few good cult members.

I’ve been looking at models of talent management and it seems that everyone’s rushing to get as many products, services, adjectives and whatever into their definitions and graphics, all to manage and measure better.  But the fastest growing sector is the entrepreneurial one.  And entrepreneurs and wannabees don’t like to be managed.  Developed yes, motivated yes, measured (if the measurements make sense to them) yes.  But managed?  No.  Seems to me all this management is not going to attract and retain what companies say they want – high energy, creative, independent thinkers.  It will more likely drive some great ones to start their own companies and others to just give up and fit in.

For the ones that won’t give up, with any luck they’ll take their talents, join with others in a new model of working together and create the entrepreneurial delights of the future.  BTW, it was great to see this mention of Temple’s entrepreneurship programs on CNN Money’s top list, especially since they cited the interdisciplinary courses like the one I’m teaching, starting Monday on Entrepreneurship for the Health Professions.