Category: Corporate Games

I know I’ve blogged about this before
but it is time for a reminder…
You absolutely need a dirt file.
You need a top secret file
documenting every shady thing
that your manager
or manager’s manager
or manager’s manager’s manager
has ever done.

Why?

Because, in these economic times,
employers are thinking up new ways
NOT to pay severance.
The ‘temporary’ layoff
is gaining popularity
where the company lays employees off
and
doesn’t pay severance up front
(they don’t have to pay severance
unless you haven’t worked for X amount of days
– depending on where you live,
X could be six months or more).
They hope you’ll find another job
before they have to pay up.
This is perfectly legal.

The only solution to this
is the threat of other, more costly legal action.
That’s when the dirt file comes in handy.

You never ever want to use the dirt file
but if something like this happens,
you’ll be glad you have it.

Tom Peters has a must-read list
of 48 things that matter
in business strategy.

My favorite?

“Expose all would-be hires
to something unexpected-weird.
Observe their reaction.”

I’ve done a thousand interviews
(especially now that I’m consulting).
Anyone my level has.
The questions are standard,
the strategy is standard.

Not only will shaking an interview up
let you see
how your candidate responds to stress
but, if she’s a pro like I am,
it’ll wake up her brain
and
she’ll thank you for it.

Have an ’emergency.’
See if she offers to pitch in.
Have to leave a ‘client.’
See if she steps up to the plate
and makes small talk while you’re gone.

Fun stuff like that.

I attended a charity event on Thursday.
The charity rep at our table
treated our waitress terribly.
She actually pulled a Sex In the City
and snapped her fingers at the waitress.
I was horrified.

She also talked down to the waitress
and didn’t tip for her drinks in this bar like setting,
simply telling her to put it on the tab.

In other words,
she violated the Waiter Rule.
“A person who is nice to you
but rude to the waiter, or to others,
is not a nice person.
(This rule never fails).”

I don’t (intentionally) do business or give money to
people who are not nice.
There are plenty of nice people
in the world.

Unless it is an emergency,
No.

Why?
Because your staff considers
you changing a staff meeting
an indication of your priorities.

They will feel you value them less
than the event you bumped the meeting for.
The more our managers value us,
the harder we work for them.
That’s true at all levels.
So if you have to re-schedule,
you better ensure
the event is pretty DARN important.

What if you expect to get more information
a day later?
Then have two short meetings.
Use the first as an opportunity
to let your staff speak.

There are two roads
to the top of the corporate ladder:
you can succeed at a high risk project
and become an overnight success
or you can inch your way up,
rung by rung.

To be a successful novelist,
you can write a runaway bestseller
or you can build up your readership
book by book.

To be a top blogger,
you can get links in from the greats
or write 3,000 solid posts.

One way isn’t right for everyone.
However, one way
is normally the right way for
YOU.

I’m a gradual build person.
If I try to rush success,
I’m miserable during the process
and I usually fail.
Give me a project I can build on
over time
and I will succeed.

Work with who you are.

The company I’m assisting right now
is hiring.
They took out a classified ad
(as per HR policy)
and received thousands of resumes.

Not one was looked at.

Why?
Because the manager had already received resumes
from internal sources.
Since no one is going to recommend
a subpar candidate,
the first round of interviews
(the ‘are you a psycho?’ test)
was already done.

In this tight job market,
you’d have to be very, very lucky to find a job
through ‘traditional’ means.
Your best source is your contact list.

After that, try untraditional means.
Interview companies for blog posts
(and keep in contact with the person afterwards).
Apply for jobs that haven’t been posted.
Work on commission only.
Sell a service they don’t even know they need.

There was restructuring in the company
I’m now working with.
It didn’t touch my department.

The manager knew it wouldn’t
but didn’t communicate this
because, well, why should she?
Nothing was changing.

So without reassurance and
a story to believe in,
coworkers made up their own.
It was dark. It was dismal.
It had the entire department being shut down.

The talented, in demand people left
(even in a recession, there are jobs for those people).
The manager has less than half her staff
and those are the folks waiting for a package.

Good news, bad news, no news,
have a talk with your staff
(or they’ll have that talk without you).

The Four Hour Work Week
has prompted a rush of delegation
via personal assistants.
Some people feel you can delegate everything.

I disagree.

A buddy has a book coming out.
I was excited about it
until
I got an email from his very nice personal assistant
talking about ways I could help
with the book launch.

The assumption was that based on our relationship,
I would help.
The issue is
I have no relationship with this assistant.
None.
And my buddy didn’t value our relationship enough
to tell me his assistant would be handling
the book launch.

Your contact list and your relationships
are too important to delegate.

Contract work has dried up
yet I’m currently on a contract gig.
I wasn’t hired based on skill or knowledge.
I was hired due to
my relationships with the right people.

People who had the ability
to help me out
but more importantly,
people who acted on that ability.

One upside of a bad economy
is that it tests business relationships.

Why is it an upside?

Because many relationships fail
and then these people or companies
look for new partners.
That new partner could be you.

IF you care for your current relationships.

The Consumer Electronics Show
is a male dominated event
so an easy marketing trick
is to have good looking women man the booth
or, especially in the mobile area,
sign posters and pose for photos.

I love hanging out with these women
and observing reactions.
It is a study in assumptions.

I overheard one man
(with his name and employer
prominently displayed on his badge)
say
“I’m surprised that girl can sign her name.”
The girl he was talking about
was in her final year of
a grueling civil engineering program.
I asked her why she did this.
She grinned at me
and said
“I get paid hundreds of dollars an hour
to smile,
why wouldn’t I?”

I suspect she was far more intelligent than he was.

Being good looking doesn’t mean you’re dumb.
On the flip side,
being plain looking doesn’t mean you’re intelligent.
Making those assumptions are dangerous.