A friend of mine called me from a noisy airport. "I can't wait to get to my hotel and tell you the latest drama from my office," he said. "I would have called you earlier, but my boss was in the cab with me."
"Before I hear the drama itself, I have a question for you," I said. "Do you ever talk to your boss about all the craziness in your company?"
"Talk to my boss?" my friend exclaimed. "Are you nuts? I tell my boss exactly what he wants to hear. People who tell my boss what he doesn't want to hear are people who get laid off at the end of the quarter."
The U.S. financial crisis has caused fear in the boardroom, and that unease trickles down to every worker. The principal signs of a fear-soaked senior leadership are a preoccupation with looking out for No. 1, a clampdown on consensus-building conversations, and the shunning or ousting of anyone so bold or naive as to tell the truth about what he or she believes. We've seen the fear epidemic hit dozens of major firms over the past few years, and it isn't pretty. When a leadership team's attention turns from "How can we do the right thing for our customers and employees?" to "How can we keep our stature, our jobs, and the status quo intact, at any cost?" then fear officially rules the roost.
Here are 10 signs of a fear-based workplace. If you're the person in charge of a shop, pay attention:
1. Appearances are everything. When employees are preoccupied with staying in the office later in the evening than the boss does, fear is king. When people worry less about the quality of their work than about how they're perceived by managers higher up the chain, you've got fear.
2. Everyone one is talking about who's rising and who's falling. When a daily focus of office conversation is the discussion of whose stock is rising and whose is falling in the company's internal stock index, you've got a fear infestation. A preoccupation with status and political capital is a sure sign that stakeholders' best interests have taken a back seat to me-first, fear-based behaviors.
3. Distrust reigns. Would this be your knife in my back? When your employees have to stop and ask themselves, "Is it safe to tell Marybeth my idea?" you have a fear problem in your organization. Workplaces where people steal one another's intellectual capital are places where trust is subordinate to fear (if trust exists at all). If your business is one where backstabbers thrive, ditto. In a healthier shop, people would be comfortable rising up in protest against a backstabbing colleague, and the paradigm "I win when you lose" would be quickly nipped in the bud.
4. Numbers rule. Sensible performance goals help people understand what's important. An obsession with metrics, daily, weekly, and hourly, and a world view that says an employee is the sum of his numeric goals, are signs of a fear-based culture. Why? A healthy organization builds performance goals into its leadership framework, but the metrics don't equal the framework. When management views people as complex, creative, multifaceted value producers and considers metrics as just one element of a well-rounded leadership program, you can beat the fear back to a tolerable level.
5. And rules number in the thousands. Maybe the most stereotypical yet valid sign of a fear-based workplace is an overdependence on policies in place of smart hiring and common sense. These organizations fear their own employees' instinctive reactions to everyday circumstances (the need to book a business trip, order a stapler, or schedule a vacation day), so they install lengthy, tedious policies to keep employees from thinking independently. A need to tout the trust and openness in the organization constantly can be another red flag. As my friend Marla says, "The more an employer drones on and on in the handbook and other employee materials about trust, the less trusting they are."
6. Management considers lateral communication suspect. My brother worked for a major electronics manufacturer. One day, stopping in the office just before taking off to visit a remote location, he ran into some guys who had just returned from the same facility. "Let's compare notes," said my brother, and five or six team members went into a conference room to confer. Within seconds, a manager burst into the room and demanded, "Who authorized this meeting? None of you guys is at a level to authorize a meeting." Evidently sharing ideas that could benefit the company is only a good thing in this organization if you carry a certain title and salary grade. How idiotic is that? Organizations that don't allow employees to brainstorm with one another are places where fear has made inroads.
7. Information is hoarded. Closely related to the question "Can employees in my company chat freely?" is the question "How do people find out how things work around here?" If the sole answer is, "Ask your manager," you've got some creepy-crawly fear bugs on your hands. Cultures that allow people to hoard what they know to consolidate their power are cultures where fear has smashed trust under its heel. Likewise, if employees learn about a company layoff through the grapevine or in the newspaper vs. a frank sitdown with their managers and their teams, something is rotten in Denmark, and fear is a silent partner in your management roster.
8. Brown-nosers rule. When the people who get rewarded and promoted are the least-knowledgeable but most-fawning ones in the org chart, fear has come to town. Fear-based senior leaders surround themselves with yes-men and yes-women because it's more pleasant to hear the "right" answer than the truth.
9. The Office evokes sad chuckles, rather than laughs. My friend Amelia writes, "As hard as the writers for The Office try to make Steve Carell's character look like the world's most bumbling, officious egotist, my actual boss is worse." When cartoonish fiction looks more appealing than everyday existence to your employees, fear may play a major part. Fear shuts down our ability to think creatively, collaborate, and bring passion to the job. When getting through the day requires a focus on keeping one's head down, taking no risks, and sucking up to anyone in management, your organization's soul has left the picture.
10. Management leads by fear. When senior leaders make virtually all decisions in secret, dole out information in unhelpful drips, and base hiring on sheeplike compliance rather than energy and talent, and the PA system all but blares "Be glad to have a job, stop whining, and get back to work," your company's fear problem is off the charts. I saw an example of this myself the other day when I stopped at a national retailer to look at earrings. A sales associate mentioned to his co-worker, "Crazy thing, I broke something in my car's engine, and my mechanic says it'll be $1,400 to get it fixed." In a flash, the supervisor of the department swooped into the conversation with the message, "Lucky you've got a job, aren't you then! A lot of people are unemployed, and we've got a list of people who'd love to have your job. That's your thought for the afternoon: Lucky Me!" and off she went. When leadership is based on keeping people in the dark and keeping them off-balance, no one benefits except the tier of managers near the top who justify their existence by devising ways to solidify their stature.
Chief executives know in their hearts that smart people, set loose to solve big problems, are responsible for every success and innovation industry has ever seen. Fear-trampled employees don't do a thing for your business. Still, management by fear is a hard habit to break, because fear-whipped underlings don't squawk. Meanwhile, your competitors may be hiring your best talent away and stealing market share while you make it easy for them to do so. Those meek, submissive, broken-down employees might blossom in your rival's trust-based culture. Do you really want to find out?
July 13, 2010
May 18, 2010
Summer memories from home........
Once upon a time there was an Irish student band called “The Reckless Pedestrians” with Rea as singer and guitarist. The band went to Germany playing some small gigs in a pub, that was the first time Mike saw them.
In 1997 Rea decided to turn his back on his band and home town Tralee and decided to leave for Germany,
more precisely to Illmensee in Swabia, with only 50,00 DM money and a Demo-CD in his pocket. At the
same time Mike read an advertisment in the local newspaper, called “Stockacher Anzeiger”: Irish musician
looking for a band for album and tour”
“Must be the Irish singer of the Reckless Pedestrians”, Mike thought and called the given number in the
newspaper and….surprise *wink*, it was Rea he was talking to.
Mike and Rea met and got along right from the start. Mike knew Sebi, Sebi knew Uwe and Uwe brought
along Philipp. So the band Reamonn was born! Very simple, isn´t it? *wink*
In 1999 the 5 guys played in a small pub in Hamburg in front of 16 representatives of well known record companies. Reamonn convinced everybody with their music , so that at the end of that day, the band found themselves in the position of being able to choose their label. Their choice was Virgin Records….
In summer 2000 one song hit in big : “Supergirl”.
Something big started and life would never be the same for the band. Supergirl went rapidly to gold and
in 2000 it was the most played song on German radio. Followed by the debut album “Tuesday” and with songs
like “Josephine”, “Swim” and “Waiting there for you” Reamonn proved that they were no “one hit wonder”.
One year after the release of the debut album “Tuesday”, the second album “Dream No. 7” entered the
music charts. The album again was produced by Steve Lyon, who also worked with Paul McCartney,
Depeche Mode and The Cure. In the same year Reamonn also had a guest appearance in the German movie “Mondscheintarif”, in which they performed their song “Weep”.
2003 followed the third album “Beautiful Sky” and with this a very special tour through German pubs
introducing the new songs. Reamonn also went on tour with Xavier Naidoo and supported Robbie Williams
in Portugal, where the single “Star” was for 9 weeks in the airplay charts and brought the guys closer to
their first Gold Award in Portugal. In August 2003 the band won the “Eins Live Krone” for Best Band
National. The award is absolutely popular because the winners are voted by fans.
Further awards followed: Platinum for the debut album “Tuesday” and also Platinum and Gold for the
album “Beautiful sky”. Remarkable was the Beautiful Sky Tour in 2004. The band headlined stadiums
that held 20.000-30.00 fans, making them one of the few German bands who have managed to gain
international acclaim. In fact, experiencing Reamonn live is probably the best way to get to know the band.
With that in mind, the band released a live disc and dvd, Raise Your Hands, later in 2004.
In August 2005 the band took a break to head to LA . There they recorded their the new album with
producer Greg Fidelman (Red Hot Chilli Peppers). It was long time no hear (at least it seemed so long to
the fans *wink*). But finally the waiting has an end and the band is back with a fantastic album: “Wish”…
April 07, 2010
Easter traditions around the world
Easter traditions around the world
The Easter Bunny is not a modern invention. The symbol originated with the pagan festival of Eastre.
The goddess Eastre was worshipped by the Anglo-Saxons through her earthly symbol, the rabbit. The Germans brought the symbol of the Easter rabbit to America. It was widely ignored by other Christians until shortly after the Civil War. In fact, Easter itself was not widely celebrated in America until after that time.
As with the Easter Bunny and the holiday itself, the Easter Egg predates the Christian holiday of Easter. The exchange of eggs in the springtime is a custom that was centuries old when Easter was first celebrated by Christians. From the earliest times, the egg was a symbol of birth in most cultures. Eggs were often wrapped in gold leaf or, if you were a peasant, colored brightly by boiling them with the leaves or petals of certain flowers.
In Scotland, the north of England, and Northern Ireland, the traditions of rolling decorated eggs down a steep hill and pace egging are still followed.
In Bermuda, the most notable feature of the Easter celebration is the flying of kites to symbolize Christ’s ascent. Traditional Bermuda kites are constructed by Bermudians of all ages as Easter approaches, and are normally only flown at Easter. In addition to hot cross buns and Easter eggs, fish cakes are traditionally eaten in Bermuda at this time.
Church bells are silent as a sign of mourning for one or more days before Easter in The Netherlands, Belgium and France. This has led to an Easter tradition that says the bells fly out of their steeples to go to Rome (explaining their silence), and return on Easter morning bringing both colored eggs and hollow chocolate eggs or rabbits.
In both The Netherlands and Flemish-speaking Belgium many of more modern traditions exist alongside the Easter Bell story. In Norway, in addition to staying at mountain cabins and painting eggs, a contemporary tradition is to read or watch murder mysteries at Easter. All the major television channels run crime and detective stories, magazines print stories where the readers can try to figure out “Whodoneit” and new detective novels are scheduled for publishing before Easter. Even the milk cartons are altered for a couple of weeks. Each Easter a new short mystery story is printed on their sides.
In Finland, Sweden and Denmark, traditions include egg painting and small children dressed as witches collecting candy door-to-door, in exchange for decorated pussy willows. This is a result of the mixing of an old Orthodox tradition (blessing houses with willow branches) and the Scandinavian Easter witch tradition.
In the Czech Republic and Slovakia a tradition of spanking or whipping is carried out on Easter Monday. In the morning, men spank women with a special handmade whip called a pomlázka (in Czech) or korbá (in Slovak) and throw cold water on them.
In Croatia and Slovenia a basket of food is brought to the church to be blessed. A typical Easter basket includes ham, horseradish, bread, colored eggs, and a type of nut cake called “potica.”
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