Is it just an act?

Is your boss merely trying to act competent? According to a new study, that could very well be the case. It brought back memories of a manager I worked with a couple years ago.

From the new article by Time magazine’s Jeffrey Kluger:

Repeatedly, the ones who emerged as leaders and were rated the highest in competence were not the ones who actually offered the greatest number of correct answers. Nor were they the ones whose SAT scores suggested they’d even be able to. What they did do was offer the most answers — period.

“Dominant individuals behaved in ways that made them appear competent,” the researchers write, “above and beyond their actual competence.” Troublingly, group members seemed only too willing to follow these underqualified bosses. An overwhelming 94% of the time, the teams used the first answer anyone shouted out — often giving only perfunctory consideration to others that were offered.

Can we work without a cubicle?

He called his own creation “monolithic insanity.” The late Robert Propst, the father of the cubicle, had never imagined that the now all-too-familiar partitions, the square workspaces that trap white collar workers, would become the standard in offices all across the country. Propst, who designed the cubicle in 1968 at Herman Miller, one of the leading furniture companies, intended it to help increase productivity by allowing workers a private space to view their work on large surfaces, display shelves and thumbtackable walls.

It has since then become a nightmare.

‘Catered Happy Hours’ at Facebook

Talk about employee incentives. These are the benefits of working at Facebook, according to the jobs page at Facebook.com:

• Medical, dental and vision plans with no premium for employees
• 401(k) plan
• 21 vacation days per year, plus 8 company holidays and 2 floating holidays
• Complimentary catered breakfast, lunch and dinner daily
• Complimentary beverages and snacks
• Dry cleaning and laundry service onsite
• Free downtown parking permit
• Subsidized gym membership
• Catered Friday Happy Hours at the office
• $600/month housing subsidy if you live within one mile of the office
• Standard-issue 24″ LCD monitors and your option of 15″ Apple MacBook Pro or IBM ThinkPad
• Worldwide notoriety by having your face on sample Facebook Flyers

So what’s your company doing to motivate the team?

An irresistible workplace?

Donna Karlin over at Fast Company paints us the ideal scenario: a workplace that’s irresistible, an environment that people would beg to be a part of. These types of organizations do exist, but the majority of us aren’t quite as fortunate to be a part of something so…dreamlike. But Karlin also poses an interesting question: can a workplace be too enticing? She brings up some valid points about maintaining a positive work-life balance. I wonder, though, if Karlin is taking for granted the kind of opportunities that some people will never see. While she’s complaining that employers might be caring too much, other people who are working suicide-inducing jobs are asking: will my employer ever care?

Friday clickables

• A new book called The Six Sigma Leader by Peter Pande suggests how a company might make change a “core competency.” A Forbes.com article takes a look at the author’s approach. Change, Pande says, “is the essence of leadership.” The ideas in his book seem to support my own thoughts on the subject.

• Scott H. Young gives us some useful ideas on how we might be able to incorporate the 80/20 rule in our daily lives.

• Are Gen-Y workers spoiled? TIME.com’s Lisa Takeuchi Cullen talks about an interesting report. I think any company that wants to make progress should listen up.

True leadership is a rare thing

It occurred to me recently that almost none of the supervisors I have worked with in the past knew a single thing about leadership or management. One of them, the editor of an entertainment news Web site, communicated strictly through IM — even with staff members she sat directly across from. And if an employee took initiative or demonstrated even an ounce of ambition, she shot them down almost instantly.

Any notion of change seemed to rile her up, as if new ideas were deadly viruses. Teamwork and staff morale were clearly of no importance to her. At 6 a.m. she clocked in, left her humanity behind, and performed her duties like a blind, faithful servant. She was in it, I believe, for the money. Even though, the money, I suspect, wasn’t very good — in her mid-30s, she was living in a house full of roommates.

She was unqualified to be editor-in-chief, but thanks to nepotism, she had been in the position for over seven years. This was a woman whose every action was based on fear — fear of losing her job, fear of change, fear of anything outside her comfort zone. Because of office politics, none of the staff ever mustered the courage to challenge her ways. I did attempt to cause a ripple through a few honest e-mails, but the woman treated them like spam.

What I learned was this: true and effective leadership is rare. Not everyone has it in them. It’s unfortunate when those who do have it are stifled and silenced, their ideas unwelcome, their skills undervalued.

Hard work pays off

“I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.”

– Frank Lloyd Wright

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. One crucial difference between those who are successful and those who aren’t is that those who are — Bill Gates, Jerry Bruckheimer, Mark Burnett, and anyone else who has been on Time’s 100 list — are willing to work hard. They accomplish more in one day than many of us do in a month.

They also surround themselves with people who are just as driven as they are. Look around you. Are your friends and co-workers positive role-models who are maximizing their potential? Or are they people who have carved a career out of misery?

Listen, I’m guilty of succumbing to laziness from time to time. I’m not afraid to admit that. But I refuse to make a life out of it. The bottom line is, success isn’t achieved by sitting on your ass.

Author brags about ‘4-Hour Workweek’

Timothy Ferriss has an interesting philosophy about productivity. In his new book, the entrepreneur shares his blueprint for the “4-Hour Workweek,” a concept that seems, to say the least, very far-fetched. Yet Ferriss does, indeed, convince us that anyone can earn $10,000 a day by doing almost nothing, and that fewer hours equals higher output. Not all of his ideas are agreeable, but Ferriss doesn’t expect you to follow all his suggestions. He wants us to think outside of the bubble. Yes, he’s out of his mind — but that’s exactly why his book, after only a few weeks out on the shelves, is already a bestseller.

Working with Gen-Y

A refreshing article from Fortune magazine talks about Generation Y and its inspiring and uncompromising view of the workplace. I’m part of that generation and have always felt, from the moment I started my first job as a grocery bagger at 16, that there were better and more efficient ways of doing things. I’ve never liked settling for something lower than the standards I’ve set for myself and the companies I work for. Life is too short for that.

If a company expects high performance from its employees, it’s reasonable to expect, from the employer, an environment that fosters creativity, new ideas, and exciting challenges. How many companies have you worked for were afraid of taking a step outside the comfort zone? Probably a lot. I was immediately shot down once by a supervisor for even suggesting that we try a new approach to things.

As one of the twentysomethings says in the article, “If we don’t like a job, we quit, because the worst thing that we move back home.” Of course, moving back home (Grand Rapids, Michigan) is the last thing I want to do, but the point here his clear: a miserable workplace is unacceptable.