There is an old joke/fable that many of you have probably heard… it goes something like this:
One day a manager was scouring the countryside for a solid candidate, but striking out everywhere. The lions were too lazy, the elephants ate too much, the monkeys wouldn’t sit still. Those damned eagles always wanted to be in charge. This manager, beaten and depressed, dropped down and sat in the middle of a field, head in his hands.
A few minutes into his pity party (c’mon, we’ve all been there), he heard a hissing, and looked next to his foot… it was a 6-foot rattlesnake! “Hey, there,” said the snake. “I hear you need help. Just hire me, and all your troubles will be over. I’m crafty, pretty fast, and not trying to climb any ladders.”
Desert Snake close-up portrait
“Wait a minute…” said the manager, “… you’re a snake! I’ll have to check your references first.” So, the manager contacted people whom the snake had been with before, and sure enough, “You don’t have a very good reputation,” said the manager. “They all say that hiring you will just come back to bite me.”
“C’mon,” said the snake. “Those people are just disgruntled, and maybe even a little jealous. Trust your gut — you need me.”
So, the manager finally acquiesced and hired the snake, who turned out to be a super employee. The manager began thinking he nearly misjudged, and that the references were misguided. Then one day, of course, the snake simply slithered up alongside and bit the manager on the leg.
“WHAT???” cried the manager… “You promised that if I would just give you a chance, this wouldn’t happen!”
“Yes, I did,” said the snake, “but you knew I was a snake when you hired me.”
Now, the real joke is much longer (stretched out for dramatic effect), but you get the idea. In this war for competitive, competent talent, it’s easy to ignore our instincts and available proof, and succumb to the belief that, “maybe they’ll work out after all.”
Just like with mutual funds, “Past performance does not guarantee future results.” But it’s all you’ve got. If something looks too good to be true, or you are convinced through judgment, history, or instinct that it’s wrong… run away from it.
Yeah, right. I’m calling bullshit. Enough already with this change-kumbaya stuff. Sometimes, change is essential for growth, for progress, hell even for organizational survival. Sometimes.
I get that.
But sometimes, we change for changes’ sake, and that’s just got to stop. Take automation, for example… At some point in our storied, sordid organizational evolution, we determined that anything we do can be made “better” if we simply automate it. Sort of like adding bacon makes all food better.
Except it’s true about the bacon…
Too frequently, though, we have processes in our organizations that just don’t work well. They aren’t all that effective, aren’t necessarily efficient, and truthfully, should be drastically modified or deep-sixed altogether.
In other words, many of our existing processes are crap. And if we take crap to begin with, then automate it, you know what we get?
Automatic crap.
And we want this? Really? Instead of using a bad manual process and taking several hours, or even days, to screw something up, we put the technology in place to now screw it up at the mere push of a couple of buttons.
Emotional Intelligence and Emotional Maturity are two terms often used interchangeably. They shouldn’t be. Emotional Intelligence continues to be a hot topic, and companies frequently invite a parade of trainers to educate employees on Emotional Intelligence when what these companies really want is a workforce with greater Emotional Maturity. Unfortunately, we’re creating a workforce of people with higher EQs, but who aren’t using what they know because they lack maturity. (more…)
It’s been 20 years since Daniel Goldman’s book “Emotional Intelligence” was published, and interest in the subject doesn’t seem to be losing steam. There are volumes of research that link social and emotional abilities to personal success and seemingly countless self-help books on improving your EQ. A recent unscientific consultation with The Google quickly returned about 14 million hits on the subject. (more…)
EQ (Emotional Intelligence) is a good thing, right? Goodness knows, all the books, articles and blogs certainly say it is. I half expect to read about Emotional Intelligence ending world hunger, or staving off a devastating hurricane.
