The Cranky Middle Manager Show #312 The Future of the MBA Ken Starkey
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #268 Built on Values Ann Rhoades
Posted on 11. Jan, 2011 by Wayne in General, Podcast
Today Wayne Turmel talks to author Ann Rhoades about her new book: “Built on Values, Creating an Enviable Culture That Outperforms the Competition”. Can you consciously create a culture or is it something that happens by accident? How do you decide on your values and how can your company actually stick to them? Good questions. We also look at the founding of the RCMP and a quote from a well-meaning fraud, Henry David Thoreau.
Don’t forget two great workshops this month!
How to Create and Manage Remote Teams on January 28
Web Presentation Basics January 24
Also a FREE white paper: Beating the Hype Cycle- how to get people to use web presentation tools you’ve already paid for.
Show Notes
0:00 Welcome to the show. Today we’re talking about starting a company with values in mind, which puts in mind the RCMP and its founder, George Arthur French. Standards and style either get determined on purpose or they happen in spite of you.
4:25 The quote of the week is from Henry David Thoreau- not one of my favorites but occasionally said something worth hanging onto and he’s a more impressive credit than quoting me….
5:10 Welcome Ann Rhoades to the show. She’s going to talk about building a company on values…but since she helped start Jet Blue she knows a bit about the topic. I’m a bit jaded on the topic so why should we care?
7:15 Ann left SouthWest and helped start JetBlue.How do you go about blue printing your values and the behaviors that exemplify them?
11:00 Hotels and airlines lead the league in complaints and bad experiences so how do you incorporate values into the business plan? Admittedly it doesn’t take much to exceed expectations but you have to try. What do you do when someone just doesn’t fit in?
14:45 What do you do as a manager with something like “safety” as a value. How do you manage to it? It’s all about identifying behaviors then keeping people accountable for it.
18:30 There are real bottom-line results to this theory…. and they’re impressive. What do you do when something bad happens to test the values? Can you recover? Here’s a case study you might not be familiar with but should be.
24:10 How do you identify people who will fit with your values during the interview process instead of getting surprised? It’s all about behavioral interviewing rather than skills interviewing. A players have skills, but that’s not how they get to be A Players.
Anns Resources
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #138 Waking Up In Corporate America- Eric Pennington
Posted on 03. Apr, 2008 by Wayne in Podcast
Wayne Turmel talks to Eric Pennington about Waking Up in Corporate America and why corporate life gets so crazy and how to survive it if you must. Knowledge isn’t always power…sometimes it just lets you know how bad things really are. Oh, and we salute a brave gerbil named Humphrey.
0:00 Welcome to the show. Today we are talking corporate survival strategies today with Eric Pennington. This show is all about realizing how insane things can be, but finding ways to cope. Therefore this episode is dedicated to someone who literally survived the rat race with his soul intact….Humphrey the Gerbil.
When you KNOW it’s a treadmill you can make peace with it…. if you don’t lose your mind.
4:16 The quote of the week is from Daniel Webster…. remember in corporate life it might be crazy, it might be benign, but it IS corporate life. Humphrey had it right, make peace with the wheel or don’t.
5:02 Welcome Eric, who is the author of Waking Up In Corporate America. We all know it’s crazy out there, but is there more to life than just whining about it? He talks about the inspiration for the book and some of the secrets to survival.
7:22 Being authentic while being part of the team is one of the biggest challenges. Where do you draw the line between shutting up just to move ahead and being part of the organization?
11:14 How do you create an environment where honesty is both encouraged and valued? The manager sets the tone… and once the decision is made you need to honor it. No whining afterwards. You need to be connected to your employees.
13:00 Leading a life of influence is another secret…. and it’s not just for those with Leader in their job descriptions.
17:15 What are the things that big companies do to suck the life from people? The biggest one is the manager not being as engaging and interested as they were during the interview. Engagement of course goes both ways and the employee has some responsibility here.
23:00 If we assume most people mean well, what is the biggest reason good, well meaning people turn into passive aggressive losers? Blame the stock market baby. Short-term metrics lead to short-term thinking.
26:31 Eric is host of the Epic Living Radio Show…. this sounds pretty cool and he’s promised I’ll be a guest one day. Some people will say anything to get on the Cranky Middle Manager Show!
Eric’s Resources
Kevin Kelly’s blog The Technium
Even Humphrey would be in trouble if he let the weasels get him down!