WorkPuzzle

Zappos and the Pursuit of Happiness - Part 2

Yesterday, we spent some time learning about Tony Hsieh’s passion for making happiness the central focus of the Zappos culture.  The insight was gained from a recent article published in Inc. Magazine.

When companies think about happiness, particularly as it applies to employees, the attention usually shifts to perks and benefits.  Hsieh seems to know better:

“That single-minded focus on happiness has led to plenty of accolades for the company, which routinely scores high on lists of the best places to work. But Zappos's approach to workplace bliss differs significantly from that of other employee-friendly businesses.

For one thing, Zappos pays salaries that are often below market rates -- the average hourly worker makes just over $23,000 a year. Though the company covers 100 percent of health care costs, employees are not offered perks found at many companies, such as on-site child care, tuition reimbursement, and a 401(k) match.

Zappos does offer free food to its employees, but the pile of cold cuts in the small cafeteria loses its allure faster than you can say Googleplex. Instead of buying his employees' loyalty, Hsieh has managed to design a corporate culture that challenges our conception of that tired phrase.”

As Dave Mashburn often points out in his WorkPuzzle posts:  Every human wants happiness, but we’re very poor at predicting what will make happiness a reality in our own lives.  This is exactly what intrigues Hsieh:

“'I've been doing a lot of research into the science of happiness,' he says. In addition to asking everyone he meets what makes him or her happy, he has also been studying books on the subject, especially Jonathan Haidt's The Happiness Hypothesis, which uses social psychology experiments to evaluate the world's great religions and philosophies and concludes that ancient wisdom and science are both useful tools in the quest for contentment.”

So, what’s he come up with?  Hsieh has concluded that happiness comes from establishing a balance between the following four basic human needs:

1. Perceived Progress:  The perception that you’re further along today than yesterday.

2. Perceived Control:  The perception that you have a direct affect on the outcomes in your life.

3. Relatedness:  Living life in the context of meaningful relationships.

4. Connection to a Larger Vision:  Contributing to something bigger than yourself.

Hsieh admits that he doesn’t have this topic completely figured out yet:

“'I’ve got a few different frameworks and I’m just figuring out how to combine them,' he says without irony or even a smile.  ‘I think I’m pretty close.'”

I find all of this intriguing, particularly because we now have hard-core business leaders addressing issues that previously "belonged" in the realm of philosophy.  Why?  Because these issues have a direct and profound impact on performance. 

If you have the responsibility for coaching and managing others, hopefully you will feel inspired to step into Tony Hsieh's shoes, and view the vast benefits of happiness in a whole new light...

Zappos and the Pursuit of Happiness

About a year ago, I started seeing advertisements in the bottoms of the plastic bins at the security checkpoints at airports – You know, the containers that you put your shoes and other personal items in before they go through the x-ray machine?

The one advertisement that stands out in my mind from routinely using these bins, was placed by a company called Zappos. Unfortunately, the intended brand impact eluded me at the time… I had no idea that Zappos was a very large and successful online shoe retailer, hence the advertisement at the bottom of the shoe bin. How clever!

Inc. Magazine recently ran an article about Zappos that I found insightful. The Zappos story is very inspiring on its own, and worth reading from a human interest perspective. But, what caught my eye was the leadership insight of their CEO, Tony Hsieh (pronounced Shay).

Hsieh has received some media attention for the financial success of Zappos (their revenues now exceed $1 Billion per year), but most people are far more interested in the counter-intuitive way he runs the company.

What’s his secret? Happiness. Hsieh has decided to make happiness the central focus of his company:

“But Hsieh has a hard time getting excited about [the financial success of the company]. What he really cares about is making Zappos’s employees and customers feel really, really good. This is not because Hsieh is a nice guy (though he is a very nice guy), but because he has decided that his entire business revolves around one thing: happiness. Everything serves that single end. Other business innovators work with software code or circuit boards or molecular formulas. Hsieh prefers to work with something altogether more complex and volatile: human beings themselves.”

Tomorrow, I’ll discuss some of the principles that Hsieh has uncovered in making happiness the central focus of Zappos. In the meantime, try to find these shoe bin ads the next time you’re at the airport…now you know the story behind them!

5 Reasons to Keep Building Your Talent Pipeline During a Recession

Last week, I ran across an article that answers a question that we get frequently:

“Should we continue to invest in recruiting while the economy is in such bad shape?  Or, would it make more sense to pull back our efforts and concentrate on other things?”

The article was written by Pedro Silva.  Silva is a Candidate Relationship Manager with JCSI, a staffing company in Boston, Massachusetts. 

Silva makes the point that the recession is being blamed for a lot of things that really have nothing to do with the economy.  It becomes justification for some people, to do nothing.

If you’re a recruiter or hiring manager, inaction now means poor results later.  Silva goes on to encourage us to continue the process of building our candidate pipelines even though times are tough: 

"Below are five powerful reasons why companies that want to come out on top will continue to develop their candidate pipeline.

1. Pipeline development is part of their growth strategy. You don’t wait until it snows to gather firewood, and these companies don’t wait until they need a hire to start identifying candidates who are equipped to be a part of their company’s success.

2. They know that long-term hiring success requires a process. It is a lot easier to keep a fire going than it is to start one, so these companies will start an ongoing dialogue with candidates with the intention of making an offer when the time is right.

3. A developed candidate pipeline removes major competition from the equation. When the time to hire arrives, these companies either have their offer prepared or they are at the top of the candidate’s mind. This reduces the chances of a salary war.

4. Having qualified candidates on hand minimizes delays in production.  A developed and managed candidate pipeline allows these companies to rebound quickly and efficiently.

5. A company that is actively recruiting is considered a strong company.  By continuing to engage prospective candidates, these companies strengthen their own company brand among others in their industry and remain aware of other trends within their market segment."

My favorite on the list is #2.  Several of our clients have cut back spending due to financial difficulties, but they've had the wisdom to keep their hiring systems active at a reduced level, rather than stopping altogether.  Restarting the fire is difficult.

The last reason, #5 on the list, also resonates with me.  Many of our clients strive to be perceived as strong and healthy by consumers.  This perception is critical to mounting their own recovery.  Recruitment advertising is a great way to help build the perception of health.  With 30% of the workforce in some mode of job search at any given time, your recruiting ads are in front of many job seekers and potential customers. 

Visibility and proactivity is key in separating yourself from your competitors.  Don’t wait for the recovery to begin…if you do, you’ll be lagging behind those who are working now.

Coaching for Focus, Attention, and Success

On Friday, I described the neuroscience regarding the importance of maintaining focus.  Brain research confirms that we can shape how our brains operate and perform by training them to focus intently on the desired end-result.  To do this with the most positive results, we must help the brain stop doing what its oldest parts are trying to do-- keep us alive!

You see, above all else, the brain's primary purpose is to keep us from dying.  How?  The brain does this by focusing on what can go wrong; by focusing on the dangers; by focusing on the obstacles; by focusing on the negative.  This is the brain's default position.

But, unlike other animals, we have this enormous cerebral cortex that surrounds the oldest part of the brain (the lymbic system).  If we always give in to the danger signals that the lymbic system is sending out, we'd rarely take chances, innovate, face rejection, or progress in our development.

Here's an example of how performance can be enhanced by training the brain to filter out obstacles and focus on the goal at hand:

I've been mountain biking for the past 14 years.  I'm by no means an expert, but I get by.  The first thing anyone learns in mountain biking technique 101, is that your bike will go where your eyes are looking.  If your eyes are looking at a tree, you'll hit the tree.  If you're looking at a rock, you'll hit the rock.

Now, your brain actually wants to look at the rock... it's literally screaming at you... "There's a rock you idiot!  You'd better look at it...and while you're at it, slow down for crying out loud!" 

There are some people who will never progress in single track mountain biking, because they can't train their minds to not look at the rock.  The people who become proficient bikers, are able to train their brain, over time, to focus ahead, around the upcoming curve, toward the open trail...to where they really want to go. 

This task takes discipline and repetition.  Soon your brain has realized, "I am not only staying alive by looking beyond the trees and rocks, I'm having pleasure and success by doing it this way!"

I've heard this same principle applies to race car driving.  At those speeds, you can't look at the wall.  If you do, you're dead!

Success for you and those you manage is no different.  If your team is constantly looking at the obstacles, you'll inevitably hit them, head-on.  Likewise, if you're constantly looking at the "bad market," you'll be dragged down by it. 

Success comes to those who can train their team (self included) to look toward the vision, the goals, and the opportunities.  A culture built on this mind-set, is one that will survive and thrive, while the "others" out there will continue to hit trees...  

Coaching From the Back of a Bass Boat

Over the weekend, I had the pleasure of flying to Nashville with one of my sons for a fishing trip.  My brother lives about an hour’s drive north of Nashville and invited us to camp and fish with him and a friend in the Peabody Wildlife Management Area (PWMA).  The PWMA is a 60,000 acre preserve that was reclaimed after this area was strip-mined for coal in the '50s and '60s.

This trip signifies a change in the role that I have in my son’s life.  In our family, we believe that childhood can be broken into three phases:  The focus of the first phase (0-6) is keeping the child alive (two-year olds have a propensity for doing things that could result in death) and teaching them to respect authority.  The second phase (7-14) is focused on character development.  And in the third phase (15-21) the focus is on coaching the child as they “practice” real life.

For each of my kids, I plan a fun trip as they enter the third phase of their childhood.  During the trip, I talk with them about how my role is going to change to that of a coach.  It’s their job to step-up and start to use the things that they’ve been given and conceptualize a life of their own.  These have been some of the best experiences in my life.  Work is important, but to see the same principles and concepts apply to life as a whole brings a deep level of satisfaction.
 
For those of you who love fishing, I’ll throw in a few details about the trip itself.  The PMWA lakes (there are hundreds of them) contain largemouth bass, bluegill, catfish, and other warm water species.  During the two days of fishing, we caught more than 50 bass and large bluegills (1st picure).
 
In timing the trip, we attempt to fish right after the female bass finish spawning.  The female bass are larger than the males, and they don’t eat while they are spawning.  So, right after they finish spawning, they’re particularly hungry which makes the chances of catching a big fish much better.  Because it was a cool spring in this part of Kentucky, we missed this ideal timing by a week or so.

I did this same trip two years ago with my oldest son and we hit the spawning window perfectly.  During that trip, he caught an 11-pound bass from one of the PMWA lakes (2nd picture).  If you click on his picture, you'll get an enlarged version.  Don't you think HotJobs should have paid us a royality for wearing that hat?  

Basic Rules For Managing People

I like rules that make sense... Rules that have a purpose... Rules that are intended to make us more productive people.  Although I've touched on it previously, I'd like to revisit the topic of rules that govern human behavior.  Just yesterday I referenced the below material in responding to a client's question.  Clearly, it continues to provide relevant insight for all of us.

Recruiting, coaching and work performance are governed by the rules of human behavior.  The rules aren’t always as ironclad as the rules of the physical universe, but they are fairly predictable.  While it may seem complicated, our job is to boil these principles down to rules that you can remember and practice on a daily basis.

Over the next few weeks, I will list and describe some of the rules regarding human behavior, and then dive into each of these rules in more detail in the months ahead.  I hope you follow along for the ride.

 

Rule #1:  The Rule of Relationship Credibility

Whether you’re recruiting new talent, coaching a team of high performers, or teaching others to recruit clients, you must understand the concept of relationship credibility.  Ask yourself this question:

“Can I generally figure out when someone is exploiting me for their own purposes?”

I think most of us have a good barometer for detecting when this is the case.  Likewise, those with whom you’re attempting to build a relationship can likely figure this out too.

If you want to draw in the very best talent, and draw out the most from them, then you need to understand what these individuals require from you.  Talented people want to have relationships, be understood, and be associated with people who are credible.

How is credibility built?  It is partially built through "process" and partially built through "substance."

The definition of "process" is "a series of actions directed toward a specific aim."  Consistent and thoughtful follow-up on your part, shows that you are dependable.  A well-conceived plan demonstrates integrity in your thoughts.  If those around you perceive that you only make contact when you want something, you will not be perceived as credible.  Executing and clearly communicating a process will prevent this from happening.

While process is important, substance is even more important.  "Substance" is defined as "real or practical value or importance."  The substance in any relationship is most easily developed by learning about the other person’s story.  This is vital for managers because it gives both you and your (prospective) employee the opportunity to assess whether you are a good fit for each other, and whether joining your team fits into his/her life story.  Genuine interest in the lives of your employees fosters the development of substance in your work relationship with them, thus fostering your credibility.

Here’s what you need to know:  What drives this person?  What are their ultimate goals?  How does doing what they’re doing now fit into this goal?  How does it fit into their financial, family and retirement objectives?  How does it fit into their charitable affiliations?  How does it fit into their personal development?  The answers to these questions will illuminate the foundation of their life story.

If a person feels that you are genuinely interested in them, he/she wants to be asked these questions.  Having this exchange will give you the most valuable tool known to managers: relationship credibility.

With relationship credibility, you can begin to integrate every conversation regarding business plans, sales objectives, and talent development into a person’s big picture.  This will be experienced as authentic, natural, and mutually beneficial.

Defining Happiness - Part 3: Coaching for Happiness and Confidence

The most popular WorkPuzzle blog to date is titled “Coaching for Confidence.”  In order to achieve a state of true confidence, you need to have worked hard at developing a talent or set of skills.  This development never comes easily and is always built with consistent and copious amounts of time and effort.

If you’ve read WorkPuzzle the last couple days (Part 1, Part 2), you know that science says the same thing about happiness.  Happiness, or a life with abiding and deep satisfaction, takes work.

For coaches, parents, and managers, this is invaluable information.  Only with this information firmly planted into your frontal lobe, can you know how to begin answering questions and fielding complaints regarding frustration, failure, roadblocks, and anxiety.

Let me give you some examples of what science says about happiness and confidence, and then tell you how to apply it:

1. Success and happiness never come solely from “the pleasant life.”  The pleasant life is defined as:  A life dedicated to maximizing the amount of pleasurable experiences in both frequency and duration.  People who value this goal above all others, exhibit more depression and anxiety, and are more likely to report feelings of “emptiness.”  (Martin Seligman, "Learned Optimism")

2. People report much greater well-being when working.  They feel stronger, more creative, satisfied, and good about themselves when they are at work.  Studies show that while at leisure, people fall into the range known as “apathy.”  They feel passive, weak, dull, and dissatisfied.

There is one more surprising finding here:  The above respondents, despite their “greater well-being”, ironically reported that they’d rather be somewhere else than at work.  The reason for this is that our culture has gradually created some very strong stereotypes about work, such as:  Work is an imposition, a constraint, an infringement of their freedom, and therefore something to be avoided.  (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi “Flow:  Psychology of Optimal Experience”)

So, as a coach, when someone complains to you about how difficult it is to achieve what they want to achieve, and they insist that it should be easier – Remind them that everyone would be happy, confident, and successful if fulfillment was easily achieved.  Assign them the task of asking the happiest, most confident, successful people they know, how they got there.

I guarantee that the answer would be a long list of trials, failures, starts and stops, and difficulty.  Welcome to the life of a happy person!

Ralph Marston said it this way:

“If it were quick and easy you would have already done it.  The fact that it is difficult and time-consuming means you’re doing something truly worthwhile.  The value of any achievement is built with the time and effort you put into it.  Keep going, keep building, keep at it and you’ll truly have something of great value.  It is often difficult to stay positively focused.  And it is always worth the trouble.  Sure, it would be much easier to do nothing.  Yet by doing nothing, you create nothing.  Instead, step forward and do the difficult work that must be done.  With each effort, you are adding more value and substance to the achievement.  Feel the satisfaction as you continue the difficult and rewarding work of building that achievement.  Know that the value has already started coming to life.”

Defining Happiness - Part 2: Coaching

Ben's article opens the door to possibly an entire series of articles.  You see, if we don't understand both the causes and the impact of happiness, we really can't have any influence over anyone.  We must appeal to what really makes people happy to engage them on any meaningful level.

All science around human flourishing can be summed up in one sentence: "It turns out that we are very poor predictors of what makes us happy."  (Seligman, Csikszentmihalyi, and Diener all say in separate writings)

Why are we such poor predictors of what makes us happy?  Basically, it's because we get sidetracked by the ever increasing availability and temptation of short-cuts and instant gratification.  Additionally, volumes of evidence suggests that for the last 60 years we have been told (from teachers, parents, media, friends, and public policy) that happiness is attained by those who increase their pleasurable experiences in both frequency and duration. 

Science, however, tells a different story...  Research shows that this mentality (the belief that we need to do more fun things in life to be happy) leads to an increase in societal and personal depression and anxiety.

Science has found that...ouch, here comes the bad news.. happiness takes work!  It takes character development, delayed gratification, engagement in ones work, strong marriage (this has the highest correlation to happiness), playing an active role in developing ones children, and having goals that are built upon deep beliefs and purpose.

Increasing happiness in ourselves and in others undoubtedly takes work.  But, if your responsibilities include coaching others, the knowledge is invaluable.  You can begin to ask:

1. Are you happy?
2. Let's figure out why or why not? (If I can't help your overall happiness quotient, what's keeping you from moving to another office?
3. What do you believe will make you happy here?
4. How are your goals in this job related to your overall goals in life? 

Side Note:  If the person only focuses on the financial picture, ask them:  How does this fit into your goals for your family, community, or faith?  If your approach strikes them as new and different, let them know that you are dedicated to helping them see the whole picture.  You want them to work hard, but it has to be toward something with more meaning than money (...although this is certainly part of the picture and not at all bad in itself!).

Here is an example of a work-related goal you may elicit:  "I want to be good at what I do, and service my clients better than they have ever been serviced..."  Now that's a goal!  But, again, it takes hard work.  When they succeed, they'll feel deeply satisfied and very grateful to you. 

It will take time, planning, execution, and effort, because remember...there are no shortcuts to happiness!

Defining Happiness

One of the purposes of WorkPuzzle is to facilitate a dialog concerning what makes people flourish in their work.  Typically, we address this topic from a scientific perspective.

Last week, I ran across the transcript of a speech given by Dr. Charles Murray at the 2009 Irving Kristol Lecture in Washington DC.  Dr. Murray is a social scientist and author who is most famously known for his controversial book, The Bell Curve (1994),that discusses the role of intelligence (IQ) in American Culture.

Recently, Dr. Murray has been studying happiness.  He approaches the topic from a government/public policy perspective, and much of what he says is probably beyond the interest of the general public.  You’re welcome to read the whole speech, but I thought it would be helpful to highlight a couple of passages that would liven our WorkPuzzle discussion.

1.  Dr. Murray does a great job of defining happiness:

“I start from this premise:  A human life can have transcendent meaning, with transcendence defined either by one of the world's great religions or one of the world's great secular philosophies.  If transcendence is too big a word, let me put it another way:  I suspect that almost all of you agree that the phrase "a life well-lived" has meaning.  That's the phrase I'll use from now on.

And since happiness is a word that gets thrown around too casually, the phrase I'll use from now on is "deep satisfactions."  I'm talking about the kinds of things that we look back upon when we reach old age and let us decide that we can be proud of who we have been and what we have done.  Or not.

To become a source of deep satisfaction, a human activity has to meet some stringent requirements.  It has to have been important (we don't get deep satisfaction from trivial things).  You have to have put a lot of effort into it (hence the cliché "nothing worth having comes easily").  And you have to have been responsible for the consequences.”

2.  Dr. Murray identifies the arenas in life where happiness are derived:

“There aren't many activities in life that can satisfy those three requirements.  Having been a good parent.  That qualifies.  A good marriage.  That qualifies.  Having been a good neighbor and good friend to those whose lives intersected with yours.  That qualifies.  And having been really good at something--good at something that drew the most from your abilities.  That qualifies.

Let me put it formally:  If we ask what are the institutions through which human beings achieve deep satisfactions in life, the answer is that there are just four:  family, community, vocation, and faith.  Two clarifications:  "Community" can embrace people who are scattered geographically.  "Vocation" can include avocations or causes.

It is not necessary for any individual to make use of all four institutions, nor do I array them in a hierarchy.  I merely assert that these four are all there are.  The stuff of life--the elemental events surrounding birth, death, raising children, fulfilling one's personal potential, dealing with adversity, intimate relationships--coping with life as it exists around us in all its richness--occurs within those four institutions.”

If you have the responsibility of coaching someone, these definitions can be very helpful in coming to a common understanding concerning the nature of happiness in a person’s life.  It is also useful  to have a framework for positioning work (vocation) among the other significant areas from which happiness can be derived.

Navy SEALs Have a "Growth Mindset"

My 14-year old son has a strong interest in the Navy SEALs.  He has read several books about this elite group of warriors and recently wrote a school paper describing their training methodologies.

I read last Friday’s WorkPuzzle article on the “growth mindset” to our family at the breakfast table.  It was an appropriate topic since we often discuss the importance of working hard and improving our abilities.

Upon hearing about the “growth mindset,” my son immediately piped up and said:

“Dad, this is a core principle of Navy SEAL training!  In order to acquire the abilities necessary to be a SEAL, a person must consistently be taken to the edge of their abilities - This makes a person feel like they are going to die.  At this point, those who believe that they can improve, push forward in the training.  Those who don’t have this belief, will voluntarily quit or Drop on Request (DOR).”

This is consistent with what the statistics show:

“SEAL training and duty is voluntary….  Classes typically lose around 70-80% of their trainees - either due to DORs or injuries sustained during training.  The Navy will not release exact numbers, either percentages or raw figures, of the attrition rate for BUD/S…

There is no way to predict what percentage of trainees will DOR during BUD/S.  SEAL instructors say that in every class, approximately 10 percent of the students do not have the physical ability to complete the training, and another 10-15 percent will make it through unless they sustain a serious physical injury.  The other 75-80 percent is "up for grabs."  During one BUD/S class, no one completed the six-month program!”

To make the numbers easy, let’s suppose a class consisted of ten people.  About three of the ten will be disqualified due to physical limitations (injury or lack of ability), and another three will make it through the training and become SEALS.

Why don’t the other four trainees make it?   Because of what is going on inside their mind.  It is not a direct physical limitation, but a mental limitation.  It is a belief that their abilities have reached an upper limit and they can no longer grow to meet the next challenge.  The “growth mindset” is part of what equips a person to see beyond the pain and persevere.

If you have the responsibility of coaching and managing those on your team, then it is likely that many of them are stuck in the belief that they have reached the limits of their abilities.  Help them see that their abilities can grow as their challenges grow.  Like the SEALs, some of them may grow into doing things they never thought possible.