THE ENTERPRISE
TELLING IT LIKE IT IS--LEARNING THE RIGHT WAY
Last week I saw a brief interview with the North Carolina soccer coach who had just won another one of many National Championships. He was asked what he did to achieve such dominant success. His answer was so simple and accurate that it bears repeating: "I start by recruiting the absolute best talent. The rest is a lot easier after that." Amen. The same works in business too. If you can sit opposite your colleagues and be pretty confident s/he is better than your competitor's person in a similar spot, there is a very good chance your company will prevail in any competitive situation.
US AIR GOT IT RIGHT
I am not a big fan of US Airways since they haven't always provided me very good service. BUT, they got it right on taking the "chanting Imams" off their flight. If you don't believe me, go to the boarding area of a major airport and create a disturbance with any overtones of either terrorism, violence or illegal behavior. You'll get detained; taken off your flight; and perhaps spend some time in jail. That is the law. Why does this group of Imams think they can come here, violate the law and then protest when they are subjected to the same treatment as any other offender? (They knew exactly what they were doing--creating propaganda material.)
PROFILING MAKES A LOT OF SENSE
In business, we used to have a saying, "it's easier to sell someone who wants to buy, so let's look for them." In airline security, it's easier to pick out probably terrorists by narrowing the field to the demographic and cultural groups that have produced virtually all of the air travel related terrorists in recent years. That's not discrimination--it's just good common sense. The problem is that common sense isn't very common these days.
TROY SMITH--(HEISMAN) WINNER
A little more on football. On Saturday night I watched a couple of classy young men at the Heisman Award ceremony. Brady Quinn literally (and figuratively) stood tall and acquitted himself very well. He is an impressive young man/leader. But even as tall and positive as he stood, Troy Smith stood taller (figuratively). Smith's story is a touching commentary on what a young man can do with his life when he has the right influences in it. Like the principle in the opening paragraph, the lessons of sports carry over into the world of business. Influences like Ted Ginn, Sr., Smith's hjigh school coach (and father figure) and Jim Tressel, the fine coach of The Ohio State University have provided that for Troy, as did his mother and sister. So do good business mentors provide that positive influence.
ARE WE CREATING A GENERATION OF SEMI-LITERATE YOUTH?
I am concerned about our literacy and mental acuity, especially that of our youth. Who bothers to remember phone numbers these days? Just put it in speed-dial on the cell phone. I'm as guilty as anyone. But I'm not sure that's good--in fact, I'm pretty sure it isn't good. Don't bother to get directions or learn the way; either use GPS or Mapquest it. Don't bother to read a newspaper or book. Just go see the movie, or catch the TV news (on the cell phone's streaming video), or check it out on a pod-cast, YouTube, or Wiki-pedia (the world's largest unreliable reference). So many of the tasks that create mental sharpness, the ability to recall and communication skills are being usurped by technological shortcuts.
COMMUNICATION IS A CRITICAL SKILL
I wonder how well this generation will be able to communicate via the written word: spelling words correctly (without a spell-checker), or even reading (and understanding) some of the less common words in the English language. Will the convergence of computers and communications with entertainment technology help or hurt them? How well will they be able to speak in complete sentences--without using that all-purpose four-letter F-profanity as an adverb, adjective, noun and/or verb? I recall some of my training as a young engineer (a long time ago). I was told by a wise teacher (with industry experience) that I needed to learn to write coherent reports and make convincing verbal presentations on the projects I was assigned. What great advice that was.
GIVE THEM A DICTIONARY AND GET THEM TO USE IT
Fortunately, my mother had encouraged me to read a lot and made me use a dictionary whenever I didn't know what a word meant (or even exactly how to spell it). Maybe part of interview processes should be a test of those critical skills of reading, writing and speaking coherently. Or perhaps, even knowing how to use a dictionary! Agreed, 70% of communication is non-verbal, but if the 30% that is verbal is incoherent, the rest doesn't matter. Let's make sure that anybody we can influence learns these basic skills--they are a lifetime gift--and a necessity, with our without computers.
Best,
John
PS: Both Brady Quinn and Troy Smith have learned how to be leaders--where communication is a key skill--and tonight they proved they could speak coherently in a very high pressure, public situation. (Young Darren McFadden gets a "bye" since he is only a sophomore, from a small town in Arkansas, and he'll be back for another chance to be more articulate--if he stays healthy).
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