One of the most successful millennials I know explained to a group of us that her professional kryptonite is incompetence. She further defined that to include people who don't try, saying that when someone is trying hard, she can work with them to improve. Getting people to try is the hardest and most important aspect of management.
While she was being a big sarcastic and bombastic, it got me thinking a little bit more about how our personal preferences influence the way we get our staff to be intrinsically motivated to perform at their best. First impressions are key, both for the employer and the employee, and it is important that we stay true to ourselves in how we present in those key moments, otherwise we will create unsustainable personas that people will soon see through.
If you, like my friend, truly value competence, make sure that is communicated through your attire, body language, and opening words with new employees. You can do this for any value you have. You should also make use of your physical surroundings.
Assuming you have succeeded in engendering your intended values with an intentional first impression, you still have to actively create an environment that continues that value and regularly use implicit and explicit methods of keeping that value around.
One of the most important values to me is working hard and working efficiently. One way I like to show to my staff at camp that I value those two things is that I will try to identify whatever task in a given situation or project will be the hardest or most complicated or involved and publicly work on that task whilst teaching staff (and campers since I know the campers will one day be staff so it's never too early to get them competent). Since a large portion of jobs at camp are dirty or gross, this often means doing my best Mike Rowe imitation and getting dirty.
You don't always have to get dirty, and you don't always have to do the hardest task publicly, but showing your staff that what they are doing matters and is not beneath anyone is a powerful method of motivating them, since it validates their effort and allows them to picture themselves transitioning from their entry level job into a manager or executive. The new CEO of JC Penny, Marvin Ellison, is a paragon of this executive virtue, and it's paying off.
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
What is Cheating and Who am I to Judge?
As a high school wrestler I spent a lot of time saying the following sentence “Wrestling isn’t a sport, it’s a lifestyle.” While a little cheeky, this saying embodied a sentiment about the totality of dedication necessary for performing with your body at the highest level. As a wrestler I woke up standing in front of the bathroom sink holding a cup of water about to drink it on many occasions. I have vivid memories of standing in the shower manually closing my mouth because I couldn’t afford to take in the water weight of a few mouthfuls of greywater flowing down from my scalp.
I was not someone who had to cut much weight; I wrestled at or around my natural (though beefy) weight throughout all four years of high school. I know explicitly the dedication and self discipline needed to stay fit and lean by eating a proscribed diet, working out for hours a day, and never compromising, even for Thanksgiving dinner! That’s what it took for me to be a champion, and that’s what it took for me to master my body.
The mano-a-mano attitude that saturates wrestling is part of what makes it so compelling to me. There are no excuses on the mat other than that you are not as good as the human being having their arm raised while you slink off in defeat.
In combination with this respect for discipline, I have a healthy dose of libertarian notions about personal choice. I always used to say I could beat someone who is any two of the following: Stronger, Better, Tougher. As long as I could identify in which category I had an advantage, I would find their cracks and expose them through mental and physical warfare during the 6 minutes we had on the mat. I’m not trying to brag, but with a 94-18 record through 4 years, I won 84% of the time with this approach.
One of the other wrestlers on the team with me was two years older than I and much better. He had more talent, was stronger, and was really tough. I rarely if ever scored a point on him. Sometimes just because he could, he would hold both hands behind his back and brush me or others off throughout a whole period of “live” wrestling during practice with only his forehead and temples. When he graduated, he joined the military, and I believe became a Green Beret or Army Ranger, or some level of national service even beyond the exceptional dedication necessary to put your life on the line for our glorious country.
He also often reeked of vodka. He was not (to my knowledge) drinking during the day or before practice, but especially reeked when we had practices during school vacations or extra hours other than our usual 3pm-6pm Monday-Friday. The alcohol came out of his pores as his body cleaned up from his previous nights’ debauchery. I do not know how good (or how emotionally unstable) he would have been without drinking. I do know that I treated my body with the utmost respect and demanded every day that I improve my performance, and drinking or doing drugs would have inhibited that.
What does it mean to cheat? Where is the line between performance enhancing and performing at your best. Who is to say that he would have been better without his vices, and who is to say that his vices held him back? When we let rules be our guides rather than performances and facts, we lose the opportunity to express ourselves fully. I believe that systems are an integral part of how we relate to each other, and institutions should be strengthened through time. However, those same institutions should also be curated to allow us to ascertain which rules exist to restrict and which exist to enable.
I was not someone who had to cut much weight; I wrestled at or around my natural (though beefy) weight throughout all four years of high school. I know explicitly the dedication and self discipline needed to stay fit and lean by eating a proscribed diet, working out for hours a day, and never compromising, even for Thanksgiving dinner! That’s what it took for me to be a champion, and that’s what it took for me to master my body.
The mano-a-mano attitude that saturates wrestling is part of what makes it so compelling to me. There are no excuses on the mat other than that you are not as good as the human being having their arm raised while you slink off in defeat.
In combination with this respect for discipline, I have a healthy dose of libertarian notions about personal choice. I always used to say I could beat someone who is any two of the following: Stronger, Better, Tougher. As long as I could identify in which category I had an advantage, I would find their cracks and expose them through mental and physical warfare during the 6 minutes we had on the mat. I’m not trying to brag, but with a 94-18 record through 4 years, I won 84% of the time with this approach.
One of the other wrestlers on the team with me was two years older than I and much better. He had more talent, was stronger, and was really tough. I rarely if ever scored a point on him. Sometimes just because he could, he would hold both hands behind his back and brush me or others off throughout a whole period of “live” wrestling during practice with only his forehead and temples. When he graduated, he joined the military, and I believe became a Green Beret or Army Ranger, or some level of national service even beyond the exceptional dedication necessary to put your life on the line for our glorious country.
He also often reeked of vodka. He was not (to my knowledge) drinking during the day or before practice, but especially reeked when we had practices during school vacations or extra hours other than our usual 3pm-6pm Monday-Friday. The alcohol came out of his pores as his body cleaned up from his previous nights’ debauchery. I do not know how good (or how emotionally unstable) he would have been without drinking. I do know that I treated my body with the utmost respect and demanded every day that I improve my performance, and drinking or doing drugs would have inhibited that.
What does it mean to cheat? Where is the line between performance enhancing and performing at your best. Who is to say that he would have been better without his vices, and who is to say that his vices held him back? When we let rules be our guides rather than performances and facts, we lose the opportunity to express ourselves fully. I believe that systems are an integral part of how we relate to each other, and institutions should be strengthened through time. However, those same institutions should also be curated to allow us to ascertain which rules exist to restrict and which exist to enable.
Saturday, November 12, 2016
Single Sentence Precepts
I used to do Goju (a particular type of Karate created in Okinawa) for a few years. All throughout the training there were a few phrases that really stuck out to me and I refer to all the time in how I think about problems and the world around me. One of them was "Kihon is fundamental" Since "基本" is the Japanese character Kihon, which means fundamental, it's kind of a rough platitude to wrap your head around. But bear with me - another way to say it is "truth is truth," or "All of Goju can be summed up in a single punch."
These sentences are meant as a guide to help us cut through all of the clutter. When you are punching, there should be nothing else, your body should act as one fluid drawing strength from the earth and placing all of your energy at the tip of your first and second knuckles. If you leave room for other thoughts or extra actions, you will reduce the ultimate power of your punch.
Stephen Mitchel's translation of the Tao te Ching says this in a particularly interesting way: "When it rains there is only rain." Give yourself over fully to what you are doing.
While it is nice for your organization to have a fully fleshed out mission statement, and you certainly should trot it out regularly to prevent yourself from losing sight of it, it is important for you to create single sentence precepts for your projects, team, and organization. These precepts give people a chance to all start from the same place. These sentences will be accessible enough to give you the chance to correct your employees or groups when they begin to stray from the path you think is best.
Additionally, if you create a strong enough sentence, or simply repeat a mediocre sentence enough, people will come to see the concept as its own entity. Once this happens, you will not be the person making them do something, the concept will be, thus freeing you up to focus on fine tuning rather than enforcing your broad organizational goals.
These sentences are meant as a guide to help us cut through all of the clutter. When you are punching, there should be nothing else, your body should act as one fluid drawing strength from the earth and placing all of your energy at the tip of your first and second knuckles. If you leave room for other thoughts or extra actions, you will reduce the ultimate power of your punch.
Stephen Mitchel's translation of the Tao te Ching says this in a particularly interesting way: "When it rains there is only rain." Give yourself over fully to what you are doing.
While it is nice for your organization to have a fully fleshed out mission statement, and you certainly should trot it out regularly to prevent yourself from losing sight of it, it is important for you to create single sentence precepts for your projects, team, and organization. These precepts give people a chance to all start from the same place. These sentences will be accessible enough to give you the chance to correct your employees or groups when they begin to stray from the path you think is best.
Additionally, if you create a strong enough sentence, or simply repeat a mediocre sentence enough, people will come to see the concept as its own entity. Once this happens, you will not be the person making them do something, the concept will be, thus freeing you up to focus on fine tuning rather than enforcing your broad organizational goals.
Friday, November 11, 2016
Maybe Two Popular Vote Victories (and Electoral Losses) Means We Need to HELP Each Other...
For the last several days, my news feed has been filled with a combination of self-righteous anger and genuine shock at the ascendancy of a "serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S." (most of Huffington Post's editor's note that has accompanied any story about Donald for the last six months or so). I believe in the electoral college and why we have it. I think it is important that we not stifle anyone's voices, no matter how much I disagree with what they are saying.
I agree with the people who are protesting in that I think they have a right to express that their choice for president did not win. But I think that there is a severe lesson to be learned for the democratic and progressive people living in Cali, DC, and NY (and the other urbanites who voted heavily for Hillary). There are millions of people in this country who have not been helped by Barack Obama's administration. Those people have a right to the same degree of self respect, self sufficiency, and employment as people fortunate enough to attend college (or some of it). 8.4 million jobs have been added to our economy during Obama's administration - for those with a college degree - while those who have only a high school degree have received nothing.
As a student at Lehigh university from 2005-2009, I ran a program at my house called Thursday Night Dinners where we invited local community leaders to come speak to us about issues important to them. The most important series we held involved local community leaders, Sands Casino representatives, and Lehigh professors speaking about the prospects of building a casino in the old steel mill. For the most part, it seems like our impressions were proved true, by 2012 - residents have "wore out the phrase ‘neutral’ to describe the overall affect of the complex at 77 Sands Blvd".
Hundreds of towns and communities all throughout PA and other rust belt states have floundered as industry has moved away and technology has reduced what used to be impressive factory towns into meth-havens ignored by Democrats. Most of those communities have not been as lucky as Bethlehem (and I do not consider Bethlehem to be lucky).
Our country has much to be proud of, and it is our diversity and cultural diffusion that makes us strong. I chafe at claims by high-tower elites who cite asymmetrical facts to deride our performance in categories like education or literacy. Our country has far less corruption than one of the only other comparable democracies, India, and our economy is stronger than any in the history of the world. Relatively speaking, we have shrunk to only the size of the best empires in history, rather than continuing to dominate half of the world's trade.
What this election is showing me, more than anything else, is that we need to take a serious and rationed look at how to improve the lives and opportunities of those left behind in the recovery. I refuse to believe that many of the old, white voters who supported Trump are as terrible and reprehinsible as Hillary claimed or as the liberal elites want us to believe right now. If you went to a school or lived in a town where you have never met a Muslim or lived with a LGBT person or had an interaction with a Jew, than your expression of beliefs in support of Donald Trump's vision is less deplorable than it is ignorant.
It is my job as a member of the landed elite or liberal coastal citizens to educate, inform, and help out our fellow Americans. In the all important words of Pope Francis, "Who am I to Judge?"
I agree with the people who are protesting in that I think they have a right to express that their choice for president did not win. But I think that there is a severe lesson to be learned for the democratic and progressive people living in Cali, DC, and NY (and the other urbanites who voted heavily for Hillary). There are millions of people in this country who have not been helped by Barack Obama's administration. Those people have a right to the same degree of self respect, self sufficiency, and employment as people fortunate enough to attend college (or some of it). 8.4 million jobs have been added to our economy during Obama's administration - for those with a college degree - while those who have only a high school degree have received nothing.
As a student at Lehigh university from 2005-2009, I ran a program at my house called Thursday Night Dinners where we invited local community leaders to come speak to us about issues important to them. The most important series we held involved local community leaders, Sands Casino representatives, and Lehigh professors speaking about the prospects of building a casino in the old steel mill. For the most part, it seems like our impressions were proved true, by 2012 - residents have "wore out the phrase ‘neutral’ to describe the overall affect of the complex at 77 Sands Blvd".
Hundreds of towns and communities all throughout PA and other rust belt states have floundered as industry has moved away and technology has reduced what used to be impressive factory towns into meth-havens ignored by Democrats. Most of those communities have not been as lucky as Bethlehem (and I do not consider Bethlehem to be lucky).
Our country has much to be proud of, and it is our diversity and cultural diffusion that makes us strong. I chafe at claims by high-tower elites who cite asymmetrical facts to deride our performance in categories like education or literacy. Our country has far less corruption than one of the only other comparable democracies, India, and our economy is stronger than any in the history of the world. Relatively speaking, we have shrunk to only the size of the best empires in history, rather than continuing to dominate half of the world's trade.
What this election is showing me, more than anything else, is that we need to take a serious and rationed look at how to improve the lives and opportunities of those left behind in the recovery. I refuse to believe that many of the old, white voters who supported Trump are as terrible and reprehinsible as Hillary claimed or as the liberal elites want us to believe right now. If you went to a school or lived in a town where you have never met a Muslim or lived with a LGBT person or had an interaction with a Jew, than your expression of beliefs in support of Donald Trump's vision is less deplorable than it is ignorant.
It is my job as a member of the landed elite or liberal coastal citizens to educate, inform, and help out our fellow Americans. In the all important words of Pope Francis, "Who am I to Judge?"
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
Donald Trump and the New Rise of the American Blue Collar White Voter
Donald Trump just won the election. Besides the shock and unease, I have been filled with a few competing thoughts since the voting data showed that the election was going Donald's way around 8:15 last night. First and foremost I am disappointed in my fellow Americans. As turnout data ossifies in the coming weeks, I’m sure I will have many things to say about the story those numbers tell.
So far the numbers that stick out most to me show that only 1/3 of the population voted (roughly 1/3 is too young to vote, but aware of the definition of bullying since they are all snowflakes, so one can hope that they grow up to resist a bully like Donald). That means that since Donald won about half of the voters, roughly 3/4 of the eligible population thought it either didn’t matter or that they’d prefer Donald Trump as president.
Each person has a right to their say, and while I flirt with elitist mentalities about who should vote, if we hope to form a more perfect union, we must give each American the chance to cast a meaningful vote in elections. It is clear that the American public wants Donald Trump. Look at the map. Unless you live in NYC, DC, Philly, or a city in CA, your area voted for Donald. From the campaign staffers I've talked to, it seems like most of the targeted voters came out in droves, so the election wasn't lost by Hillary, it was won by Donald.
I keep wondering what the world would be like if the baby boomers had focused more on teaching people how to read, or instituted minimum wages that rose with the dollar, or taken a little less acid. Instead they have consistently spent many times more money than they had so they could falsely inflate their lifestyle. This cycle of over-consumption and bust is unhealthy, which helps explain why we have a gluttonously capitalistic and misogynistic president, again.
However, once I start to quaff that bottle of gripe juice, I find myself unwilling to blame someone else. I am a white cis Millennial American man, and though I worked to help elect Hillary and wish to have the opportunity to vote for women and people of color in many future elections, I am part of the problem.
It’s hard to quantify the blinders I believe have been placed on me because of my privilege - I have had so many opportunities, and receive biased positive outcomes so often that no matter how “woke” I am or become, I will never be able to absorb what the world feels like from the perspective of either a white rust belt septuagenarian or an immigrant. I would like to think that I am an ally to women, people of color, and anyone less fortunate than I, and when faced with opportunities to help others I try to do my level best to do those things.
It's obvious that the anger, frustration, and hopelessness of the rust belt is a real thing. What solutions can we come up with to address that? If towns and lifestyles are dying and industry has left, what can we do to fix that and bring renewed hope to people outside of large cities? Wisconsin voted for Donald because Hillary never visited it once during her campaign. She took it for granted, but the voters there roared to life and insisted that they have a say.
Perhaps as a result of privilege, I tend to be optimistic, so I resist the urge to lash out in superlatives and hyperbole about what evils that man may do. Either we live in a democracy or we do not, and seeing as I want to respect the institutions that I believe give us the power and prestige that we have, I would like to find some way to help empower our legislators to help the poeple who need it.
So far the numbers that stick out most to me show that only 1/3 of the population voted (roughly 1/3 is too young to vote, but aware of the definition of bullying since they are all snowflakes, so one can hope that they grow up to resist a bully like Donald). That means that since Donald won about half of the voters, roughly 3/4 of the eligible population thought it either didn’t matter or that they’d prefer Donald Trump as president.
Each person has a right to their say, and while I flirt with elitist mentalities about who should vote, if we hope to form a more perfect union, we must give each American the chance to cast a meaningful vote in elections. It is clear that the American public wants Donald Trump. Look at the map. Unless you live in NYC, DC, Philly, or a city in CA, your area voted for Donald. From the campaign staffers I've talked to, it seems like most of the targeted voters came out in droves, so the election wasn't lost by Hillary, it was won by Donald.
I keep wondering what the world would be like if the baby boomers had focused more on teaching people how to read, or instituted minimum wages that rose with the dollar, or taken a little less acid. Instead they have consistently spent many times more money than they had so they could falsely inflate their lifestyle. This cycle of over-consumption and bust is unhealthy, which helps explain why we have a gluttonously capitalistic and misogynistic president, again.
However, once I start to quaff that bottle of gripe juice, I find myself unwilling to blame someone else. I am a white cis Millennial American man, and though I worked to help elect Hillary and wish to have the opportunity to vote for women and people of color in many future elections, I am part of the problem.
It’s hard to quantify the blinders I believe have been placed on me because of my privilege - I have had so many opportunities, and receive biased positive outcomes so often that no matter how “woke” I am or become, I will never be able to absorb what the world feels like from the perspective of either a white rust belt septuagenarian or an immigrant. I would like to think that I am an ally to women, people of color, and anyone less fortunate than I, and when faced with opportunities to help others I try to do my level best to do those things.
It's obvious that the anger, frustration, and hopelessness of the rust belt is a real thing. What solutions can we come up with to address that? If towns and lifestyles are dying and industry has left, what can we do to fix that and bring renewed hope to people outside of large cities? Wisconsin voted for Donald because Hillary never visited it once during her campaign. She took it for granted, but the voters there roared to life and insisted that they have a say.
Perhaps as a result of privilege, I tend to be optimistic, so I resist the urge to lash out in superlatives and hyperbole about what evils that man may do. Either we live in a democracy or we do not, and seeing as I want to respect the institutions that I believe give us the power and prestige that we have, I would like to find some way to help empower our legislators to help the poeple who need it.
Friday, November 4, 2016
Strength and Objectivity over Preconceptions and Personal Agenda
In 2015 the Educational Testing Service (ETS) gave a test to adults ranging from 16 to 65 years old testing their skills in a variety of professional metrics. Unsurprisingly, the youngest adults had fewer skills than the oldest ones. Turns out people learn things as they get older.
If that was all there was to the story, there wouldn't be much interest. But articles like this Fortune article from March 10, 2015, or this "parenting" article from AARP on April 27th, 2015 paint a picture of millennials that makes it seem like it's somehow millennials' faults that they are young and have been systemically let down by their elders and political institutions.
According to an Accenture study of the graduating class of 2016, 80% of grads believed they would be receiving on the job training, but only 54% said they actually received it. This represents a massive gap in expectations between employees and employers, and can only result in tension, disappointment, and corporate-wide under-performance.
The problem here is similar to the bad judgement Roger Godell has shown leading up to Tom Brady's recent 4 game suspension from the NFL. Tom Brady and the Patriots whacked the Broncos. Like tore apart their team, morale, and hopes and dreams to the tune of 45-7. Every team has skeletons, so Get off your high horse NFL! Brady got suspended (and the team fined hugely) for an offense that often goes un-fined. Tom Brady reasonably noted to the arbiter that there are different sets of rule books for players than general managers and won a repeal of his suspension. Then in order to make sure the integrity of the game was held to the highest regard, the NFL went after him further and won a reinstatement of the suspension.
There is no arguing that Tom Brady is a great quarterback, perhaps the best in the history of the game, and that he tends to try to win every week. There is also no arguing that the integrity of the game is at stake every week through the decisions and performances of players, refs, coaches, athletic trainers and many others involved in the sport.
The problem here lies in the fact that rather than asking how to get your business to the right result, employers, or Godell in the NFL example, are more concerned about having their predispositions and preconceived notions confirmed. Everyone 'knows' that the Patriots cheat, so the moment you think you've got them, go for the throat. Even if that runs counter to your bottom line (Tom Brady jerseys made the NFL more money than anyone not named Dez this year). Mr. Godell has done an insanely competent job making the NFL money, but he let his passion and personal agenda get in the way of smart business.
Imagine if instead of trying to scratch Brady's eyes out like they were fighting behind the bleachers, Godell had launched a massive ad campaign with Brady as the centerpiece. What if they had come together and announced to the world that people make mistakes, integrity matters, and that while winning is nice, sometimes you get carried away. Spot after spot after entertaining spot would have raked in dough for the NFL - instead they spent $14.7 million adjudicating against their premier player, all while still being shitheels when it comes to domestic violence (among a million other issues, some mentioned in the high horse link above).
If that was all there was to the story, there wouldn't be much interest. But articles like this Fortune article from March 10, 2015, or this "parenting" article from AARP on April 27th, 2015 paint a picture of millennials that makes it seem like it's somehow millennials' faults that they are young and have been systemically let down by their elders and political institutions.
According to an Accenture study of the graduating class of 2016, 80% of grads believed they would be receiving on the job training, but only 54% said they actually received it. This represents a massive gap in expectations between employees and employers, and can only result in tension, disappointment, and corporate-wide under-performance.
The problem here is similar to the bad judgement Roger Godell has shown leading up to Tom Brady's recent 4 game suspension from the NFL. Tom Brady and the Patriots whacked the Broncos. Like tore apart their team, morale, and hopes and dreams to the tune of 45-7. Every team has skeletons, so Get off your high horse NFL! Brady got suspended (and the team fined hugely) for an offense that often goes un-fined. Tom Brady reasonably noted to the arbiter that there are different sets of rule books for players than general managers and won a repeal of his suspension. Then in order to make sure the integrity of the game was held to the highest regard, the NFL went after him further and won a reinstatement of the suspension.
There is no arguing that Tom Brady is a great quarterback, perhaps the best in the history of the game, and that he tends to try to win every week. There is also no arguing that the integrity of the game is at stake every week through the decisions and performances of players, refs, coaches, athletic trainers and many others involved in the sport.
The problem here lies in the fact that rather than asking how to get your business to the right result, employers, or Godell in the NFL example, are more concerned about having their predispositions and preconceived notions confirmed. Everyone 'knows' that the Patriots cheat, so the moment you think you've got them, go for the throat. Even if that runs counter to your bottom line (Tom Brady jerseys made the NFL more money than anyone not named Dez this year). Mr. Godell has done an insanely competent job making the NFL money, but he let his passion and personal agenda get in the way of smart business.
Imagine if instead of trying to scratch Brady's eyes out like they were fighting behind the bleachers, Godell had launched a massive ad campaign with Brady as the centerpiece. What if they had come together and announced to the world that people make mistakes, integrity matters, and that while winning is nice, sometimes you get carried away. Spot after spot after entertaining spot would have raked in dough for the NFL - instead they spent $14.7 million adjudicating against their premier player, all while still being shitheels when it comes to domestic violence (among a million other issues, some mentioned in the high horse link above).
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
Leading through Values
When you lead people through values, you give them the tools and agency to make their own choices. Sometimes this will mean a person makes a mistake or has an error in judgement, but for the most part, giving people a set of values to hold onto is like giving a sea captain a compass. Yeah, you could give them extremely detailed step by step instructions for reading the stars, common and uncommon markings along the shore and across the sea, or you could give them a tool that helps them find a moral north.
At camp we have a couple phrases that we use to guide us through all things. First and foremost (and mentioned within a minute of the official beginning of staff training) is that "Camp is for the Camper". If what you are doing is not for the campers, that doesn't mean it's wrong, it just means it isn't heading in the right direction. Rather than managing individual behaviors, it makes it easy to ask a counselor or squad of goofballs to reconsider if their choices are putting campers first.
One caveat I do have is that there is a moment where the humility and 'campers first' mentality begins to head towards dehumanization of the workforce. If you are using your values as a cudgel to get your employees to place their own identity and well-being below that of some larger and unifying goal, then you are risking their health and have a possibility of overextending them.
Therefore it is the job of the manager to be an active curator of values; to balance results and sacrifice; to redirect people before they overextend. We had a bunch of counselors who quickly bonded at the beginning of the summer and started calling themselves the "FOMO Crew" because they were staying up so late together. One the one hand, they were forming bonds together that are sharp and deep. Chemistry that resulted in one of the most powerful and functional cultures of the summer (the Newctown Boys, our very own joke boy-band). But there was a moment where as a manager, several days after I had heard about their tendency to stay up together, where I had to call out several of the boys for their lackluster performance in the morning and discuss (somewhat cheekily, as is my custom) why that was. Rather than reacting with anger at a job undone, I tried to channel their chemistry into something productive. Use your verbal aikido skills to take something that is positive (group chemistry) and ask them to do that positively, rather than living for the nighttime without the kiddos.I think if I had headed off a couple of the boys in 2014 earlier, or had my assistant director do the same thing, there would have been a much more functional culture on that front in 2014 as well.
At camp we have a couple phrases that we use to guide us through all things. First and foremost (and mentioned within a minute of the official beginning of staff training) is that "Camp is for the Camper". If what you are doing is not for the campers, that doesn't mean it's wrong, it just means it isn't heading in the right direction. Rather than managing individual behaviors, it makes it easy to ask a counselor or squad of goofballs to reconsider if their choices are putting campers first.
One caveat I do have is that there is a moment where the humility and 'campers first' mentality begins to head towards dehumanization of the workforce. If you are using your values as a cudgel to get your employees to place their own identity and well-being below that of some larger and unifying goal, then you are risking their health and have a possibility of overextending them.
Therefore it is the job of the manager to be an active curator of values; to balance results and sacrifice; to redirect people before they overextend. We had a bunch of counselors who quickly bonded at the beginning of the summer and started calling themselves the "FOMO Crew" because they were staying up so late together. One the one hand, they were forming bonds together that are sharp and deep. Chemistry that resulted in one of the most powerful and functional cultures of the summer (the Newctown Boys, our very own joke boy-band). But there was a moment where as a manager, several days after I had heard about their tendency to stay up together, where I had to call out several of the boys for their lackluster performance in the morning and discuss (somewhat cheekily, as is my custom) why that was. Rather than reacting with anger at a job undone, I tried to channel their chemistry into something productive. Use your verbal aikido skills to take something that is positive (group chemistry) and ask them to do that positively, rather than living for the nighttime without the kiddos.I think if I had headed off a couple of the boys in 2014 earlier, or had my assistant director do the same thing, there would have been a much more functional culture on that front in 2014 as well.
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