jessica lee writes.

Sorry, Google... Managers Can't Stop Managing.

there was a bit of buzz yesterday over Google announcing that they had found a new way to spot quitters in their organization - through an algorithm. says the Wall Street Journal:

The Internet search giant recently began crunching data from employee reviews and promotion and pay histories in a mathematical formula Google says can identify which of its 20,000 employees are most likely to quit.

Google officials are reluctant to share details of the formula, which is still being tested. The inputs include information from surveys and peer reviews, and Google says the algorithm already has identified employees who felt underused, a key complaint among those who contemplate leaving.

now, i love Google. don't get me wrong. i'm always impressed with their innovation... but i can't help but wonder if the algorithm is... how shall i say this... could they be over-analyzing things a bit? know what i mean? at the end of the day, we're talking about people here and i am just a bit unsure about whether people can really be simplified down to an algorithm. i know... it sounds cheesy but this biz i'm in is about people. and what i know is that they are unpredictable and irrational and illogical. we have feelings, we act on them and there's no telling at times... and an algorithm to "get inside people's heads even before they know they might leave," as their head of HR puts it, it just seems to displace a manager's role of being in tune and present with their staff.

i'd like Google to prove me wrong... i'll keep my eye out on their algorithm and whether it works. but in the meantime, managers need to keep managing. know what's going on with your staff, get in their heads before they know they might leave and do something about it.

"I Was Wrong." Now That's Music To My Ears.

i was flipping around on the Business Week website the other day and saw a headline that read... Three Words Every Leader Should Learn. of course, i clicked on the story. the three magic words? i was wrong. now those are some tough words to mutter and it got me thinking about the apologies in the workplace i have received.

first of all, context. as an HR gal? you're frequently dispensing advice that people don't want to hear. you're the voice of reason in a sea of irrationality. you have to push back on people doing dumb things, or wanting to do dumb things which can be hard when your job is to provide internal customer service. the managers in my company are the very people i'm supposed to be supporting and partnering with. so, to say no to my CEO? or to my CFO? i cringe at the thought but a good HR gal can't always be the "yes" girl, or the i'll-find-a-way-to-make-it-work gal because there are times where you need to, have to say no. and you learn after a while that if you keep saying yes, you get walked all over or you can get played.

so apologies to an HR gal? they can be few and far in-between... which is okay because thankfully, i've not had many asshole moments rammed down my throat. and besides that, i also recognize that i'm not good at apologizing to others; i'm a stubborn little bastard... so that all being said, i don't always need to hear the words, "i was wrong." i can find the subtext in your actions.

a situation i went through once sticks out in my mind though where a particular senior leader was upset with me. the details aren't terribly important. it was partly politics. but the gist of the situation was that he wanted to make a staffing related decision that wasn't in the best interest of the bigger picture. i put some wheels in motion to bring other voices into the conversation who were able to help steer him into another direction when i realized my prompting wasn't enough. and as a result? he got frustrated with the whole situation, but mainly frustrated with me. never mind he was going down the wrong path, it seemed i had become the stumbling block. so he walks into my office, on this one particular friday morning, at 9am ,at which point i had only had one sip of my coffee. he sits down, shuts the door and then these words came out of his mouth: "you really screwed me over." and he proceeds to ream me.

queue the tears. just kidding. i actually giggled when he said i had screwed him over because it was so ridiculous to think i would ever be so malicious. but he said what he needed to say and i listened. i told him what the situation was from my perspective and i told him i could see where he was coming from . and the conversation was over in four minutes at which point he walked out. i was unphased. but he was still pissed at me.

fast forward four days later and he walks into my office to apologize. "i'm sorry about the other day. i know i was harsh with you... it's just that i felt like i was put in a bad situation but i know you were just doing your job. we really value you and i wouldn't want you to think that you aren't appreciated." holy cow. manning up and coming to me to say that? wow. honestly, i was more phased by the apology than his initial actions or the accusation that i had screwed him over because how often do you have a leader apologizing for his or her actions? i mean, really...

i know that there are times when it's hard to push back. and there are times when it's hard to say no. and there will continue to be times when you know you're right and they aren't and you'll want to say "i told you so." or you're going to want them to apologize. and there will be times that they come through and say they're sorry, and that they were wrong. but it's not going to happen all the time. and you shouldn't expect it to. learn to read the subtext... but once in a while, trust me. they'll say those three words - i was wrong. or maybe two words - i'm sorry. really. i've heard the words with my very own ears.

Naturally Entrepreurial.

have you ever heard of Ode Magazine? i came across it today via Twitter and fell in love with this article on natural entrepreneurship. think about it - being entrepreneurial doesn't just mean starting your own business. you can be naturally entrepreneurial in your approach to work within an organization - it's about a mentality or attitude... and i'm not sure everything thinks of entrepreneurship in that way. "Entrepreneurship need not be stressful, risky, expensive, lonely, exhausting or require great skills, ideas or self-confidence," Dave Pollard writes. and he also shares six things naturally entrepreneurial people do:

1. They had found their sweet spot, the work where their gifts, their passions and their purpose intersected.
2. They had found the right business partners, people who shared their purpose and whose gifts and passions complemented their own.
3. They did world-class research to identify real needs that weren’t being met by any other enterprise in the marketplace.
4. They used a rigorous, continuous process to invent and commercialize products and services that met those unmet needs.
5. Instead of planning for the future, they had learned how to improvise, to adapt easily to changes in the economy and demographics.
6. They acted with integrity, operating in a way that resonated with their values, and made principled decisions, not opportunistic ones, in the long-term interest of their partners, employees, customers and communities.

good stuff, i think. it puts some additional framework around the kinds of questions i ask people when recruiting for my firm as we're all about the entrepreneurial spirit.

Rules + Regs Won't Control Behavior. It's Inspiration + Influence.

i still can't get Thomas Friedman's last piece in the New York Times out of my head. here's where i'm stuck - Friedman quoting Dov Seidman:

“There is nothing more powerful than inspirational leadership that unleashes principled behavior for a great cause,” said Dov Seidman, the C.E.O. of LRN, which helps companies build ethical cultures, and the author of the book “How.” What makes a company or a government “sustainable,” he added, is not when it adds more coercive rules and regulations to control behaviors. “It is when its employees or citizens are propelled by values and principles to do the right things, no matter how difficult the situation,” said Seidman. “Laws tell you what you can do. Values inspire in you what you should do. It’s a leader’s job to inspire in us those values.” Right now we have an absence of inspirational leadership. From business we hear about institutions too big to fail — no matter how reckless. From bankers we hear about contracts too sacred to break — no matter how inappropriate. And from our immature elected officials we hear about how it was all “the other guy’s fault.”

doesn't that make you pause? laws tell you want you can do - but values inspire in you what you should do. now that's quite a statement - and it fits so very nicely into my attitude towards government and law... and really, it's why i have issue with proposed legislation like the Employee Free Choice Act, or the Paycheck Fairness Act, which will probably be reintroduced this year, or on a more micro and local level, certain company policies. laws and policies don't control behavior - we can only influence behavior. and when you have leaders who can positively influence and manage their influence, then you'll get the behavior you hoped for. and yes, inspiration does equate to influence in my book.

friends and some family still ask me today if i actually voted for Obama. i laugh... but i get where they are coming from. i am after all, the girl who was asked on election night if i was getting misty eyed out of sadness or joy. no one could figure out what was going on in this head of mine (me included - what conflict that night!). but to be clear, there were two reasons i voted for our President, the biggest reason being that i was inspired. i saw how he so clearly moved people to act. and during the campaign i was touched by how his ability to stir people and get them interested in politics and civil service. it was so amazing to me how he mobilized so many people who despised or were disinterested in our political landscape. even if i didn't agree with him completely from a values standpoint, his inspiration, and ability to influence, seemed more important. people began caring about and taking action within our communities and our country like nothing else. so that's how much inspiration matters, and that's how powerful influence is to me. what does it mean to you though?

On Getting Promoted... At Microsoft, or Anywhere Actually.

a friend of mine at microsoft recently sent me over to the blog mini-microsoft. it's an anonymous blog written by someone at microsoft, and the blog itself has been around since 2005. it has a pretty decent following of other microsofties and it appears to have pretty open, and positive dialogue within the blog about many different facets of the company and what it's like to work there. and says wikipedia, the site is credited with providing some of the impetus for internal changes at the company in 2006, specifically concerning how employee reviews are done. how interesting and cool is that? sometimes, the best change does happen from the outside. (and now how do i get a wikipage developed for this blog? i kid, i kid. some day...)

the most recent entry on mini-microsoft was on the topic of getting promoted to level 63, a senior level within the microsoft hierarchy. it's a pretty good read and i actually sent it around to the management staff of my firm as i thought there were some really good bits in the posting that can be applied to conversations with staff on what they should think about when wanting to know what it takes to get to the next level. excerpts that i particularly dug when mini-microsoft listed out some aspects of an L63:

• They can own a room: they aren't warming a seat but rather can take charge of a conversation and represent such a deep level of knowledge that they gain respect for what they say and earn a good reputation. Their focus stays on accountable results and this person can bring resolution and closure together.
• Expert: They are sought after to be in meetings, for instance, so that good decisions can be made.
• Makes other great: the team benefits and grows from the person's contributions. Answers questions from the team, from support, from customers. Knows what the team delivers backwards and forwards. They are a good mentor.
• Influence when they can, scare when they must: they have fundamental skills in influencing people, but if they need to flip into junk-yard dog mode, they can. They don't give up and walk away but rather fight when they need to fight, escalating only when needed and with lots of justification.
• Makes the boss great: if the team and your boss are succeeding because of you, of course you'll be succeeding too.

if you have the time, give the blog posting a read - i found it to be insightful and refreshing particularly because i hear about this issue frequently of what it takes to be promoted. they want a checklist of things to do to get to the next level... and honestly, the checklist notion just doesn't work. there are intangible things that contribute to being a good leader that i think sometimes are hard to articulate on paper. but somehow, with this posting, mini-microsoft does a good job capturing how one should think about "what it takes" but then also provides some good thoughts on the aspects of a level 63 person. it almost makes me wonder if mini-microsoft should go into HR... hmmmm.