Mojo, Part II

Given the era we're slogging through, it's not surprising that a good number of people are feeling less than successful these days. Put more bluntly, many capable, accomplished, highly-resourceful people are feeling at this very moment as if they are failing. Or, possibly, that they have failed. Hard times have that debilitating effect. Not only does our savings account take a hit during bad economic times, our psyche often gets crushed too.

It's hard not to personalize a layoff, repeated rejections, and the inability to find a good job. It's hard not to think it's something you said, something you didn't say, something you should have done. It's hard not to think you're simply not capable. That you're not good enough. That you'll never be good enough.

But, and we have it on very good authority, it is not you. It's the economy. It's corporations unwilling to hire (despite having gobs of cash in the bank). It's far too few jobs for far to many applicants.

It is not you.

That said, there may be something you are doing to contribute to the situation. Something you could do to increase your chances of overcoming any odds you face in regaining the success you enjoyed before all of this started. Something that will separate you from everyone else.

Mojo.

That bounce in the step, sparkle in the eye, confidence in the voice that motivates, strengthens and emboldens us to act with determination, with the belief that one will be successful. That magic charm that raises valleys, lowers mountain tops, that makes even the most audacious goals seem somehow possible, attainable. That energy that quells doubts, calms nerves, that inspires us to dream of what can be. The can-do spirit. The power of hope.

Yes, that mojo.

Where has it gone?

It has gone nowhere. We're just not using it.

Why we're not using it is easy to explain. The magic we refer to is dampened by uncertainty and fear. The uncertainty that accompanies a poor economy. The fear that is the product of depressed corporate earnings, little or no revenue growth, on-going reorganizations, job eliminations, high unemployment. Budget crises in cities and states. Lowered giving to non-profits. The talk that the economy may yet turn south again. The prognostications that growth may continue at a snail's pace. That we'll be in this for years.

Indeed, it's hard to be up-beat, enthusiastic, optimistic in the face of the doom and gloom that we've been hammered with the last few years. How not to be affected by the months of negativity? How not to be slowed by memories of struggle and failure? How not to lose one's verve, one's determination, one's passion? How not to lose confidence after experiencing repeated disappointment?

Too bad we remember so much. Too bad we remember only the negative.

So, it's easy to explain the loss of mojo. The question now is: How to regain it?

We strongly recommend the following:

1. Believe! The magic exists! Your magic lives. Feel it, touch it, smell it (to steal a good line from The Producers). It's right where you left it, ready for use.

2. Start small. Let yourself feel a bit of optimism about something, anything. That this week will be better than the last. That a good thing will happen. That today will be better than yesterday. That there's reason to hope. That you've been far more successful over the course of your life than you give yourself credit for.

3. Build. Small gains beget larger gains. Allow the simple act of feeling optimistic warm your soul. Look carefully about you and you'll see that there is reason to be positive, to be confident. A child's smile might do it. A good laugh. A favorite song. The belief that life can be good again. Knowledge that you are capable, resourceful, smart.

4. Expand. As your confidence returns and the magic again flows, find a cause, a purpose. (What, you thought this was only about you? You're not alone in this. The magic is wasted unless you use it for a greater good.) Have a favorite charity, an organization that needs help? Cool. Get more involved. Find one before the week is out, make the call, and seek a specific way to help. (We've got a list of dozens of wonderful organizations that would love your involvement.)

5. Share. Magic is more powerful when it can be shared. Amazing but true, our magic produces more when we help others feel it. There's nothing quite like bolstering a sense of optimism in someone. Try it this week. There's no reason to wait.

6. Maintain. Magic takes work. You've got to fight for it. Once you have it back, you've got to use it -- or lose it. Using it daily is easier than losing it and starting over again. Find reasons to be optimistic and use that magic to invigorate others. Together, we can recharge the souls -- the mojo -- of thousands.

It's one thing to talk about it, another completely to do it. Some may need support. If you are one who could use a bit of help, or know someone who does, don't be shy about getting in touch with two brilliant coaches. Juls Snowden and Steve Lundeen have been guiding the effective come-backs of people for years. Contact them. You won't be sorry. They'll help you find the magic.

Rekindle optimism. Find your mojo. Help yourself by helping others.

Start today.

What Is Hip?

What is hip? For some, the eternal question. For others, a perpetual concern. For yet others, an obsession.

As much as some of us desperately need to know what, indeed, is hip, this week's offering isn't about clothing, hair style, restaurants, cars, food, wine and anything else of a material nature.

No, this week we will, as a public service to our vast readership (you both know who you are), we will provide the definitive answer to a question that has eluded, perplexed, and confounded the masses for entire eras. In a few moments we will answer a question that a certain Oakland soul band has been posing for almost 44 years. What is, indeed, hip?

And given the lofty stature of this blog, please know that what follows is not conjecture, hypotheses or guess-work. Instead, what follows is truth. So deal with it.

Question #1: What is hip? (Tell me, tell me if you think you know.)

Loving music is hip.

Helping friends become family is hip.

Getting married on a deck overlooking a yacht harbor is amazingly hip. (Way to go, Mark and Anne!)

Playing politics with the nation's economy, leaving it in near- shambles, and then going on vacation is definitely NOT hip. (We will remember.)

Allowing members of Congress to go on vacation rather than forcing them to correct the crisis they created is not hip. (We will remember, Mr. President.)

12% unemployment is not in any way hip. (Instead, it's disgusting.)

Anyone suggesting that seceding from the nation might be an option -- and then questioning the patriotism of the President -- is absolutely not hip.

Marrying for love is hip.

Preventing anyone to marry is not hip.

Imposing a religion's values on others is absolutely not hip.

Finding a way to hire someone is hip.

Helping someone do the job better is completely hip.

Allowing people at work to make a real difference is wonderfully hip.

Treating people with dignity and respect, both at work and elsewhere, is hipness personified. (credit Robert Mondavi for this important lesson)

Responding to e-mail within a day is hip.

Not responding to e-mail is so not hip.

Spreading joy is big-time hip.

Asking for help is very hip.

Honoring ideas -- even if they are contentious -- is hip.

Finding solutions, rather than bemoaning the current situation, is hip.

Being honest is at the core of hip.

Losing dozens of pounds of weight, without bringing any attention to oneself, is remarkably hip.

Contacting a long-lost friend is hip (and beautiful).

Touching the heart of someone is beautiful (and hip).

Volunteering is hip.

Giving is hip.

Helping someone get a job is as hip as hip gets.

Any company willing to sacrifice some profit so as to hire a few more people is so hip it hurts.

Hipness is having a greater concern for others than oneself. For this reason, the Tea Party is not anywhere close to hip, nor is the Republican party. The Democratic party is inept and, therefore, not hip.

Demonstrating a concern for the well-being of employees is cool and hip.

Leading is hip.

Thinking you're hip is completely not hip. On the other hand, caring more for others than for yourself is the definition of hip.

Question #2: Are you hip?

We'll leave this answer to you.

In the meantime, the events of the last few weeks have, without doubt, been beyond frustrating, infuriating, and, more accurately, completely maddening. Never have so many felt so helpless. Emotions are low, happiness is threatened, and joie de vivre has been a no-show. For that reason, we at The Job of Work believe some positive, uplifting, mood-altering activities are in order. (No, not those mood-altering activities.)

As a public service, then, we leave you with a video clip guaranteed to raise your spirits. We challenge you to watch it in its entirety and not smile, not sing along, not feel better. (And don't let the mistyped title detract from your enjoyment. It should read 'Ferris Bueler's Day Off'.)

Enjoy and see you next week.

Is It Really So Difficult?

An economy teetering on the edge. A fragmented, dysfunctional Congress, seemingly more concerned with bickering and how not to stimulate growth than it is about job creation. A stock market that makes the most harrowing roller coaster seem tame by comparison. Consumer confidence at a 3-decade low. No plan – actually, not even talk of a plan. So much for providing some confidence. So much for providing even a modicum of hope.

Feels for all the world like we’re on our own.

So we ask yet again: Where is leadership?

Talk about a teaching moment. Too bad it’s come at such a high price.

Let’s start at the beginning. What is leadership and what does it look like? We have our point of view about leadership – and there’s been only, what, a thousand books written on the topic? Of course, it's one thing to write about it and another thing altogether to doing it. (Which, of course, reminds me instantly of Woody Allen’s classic line: “Those who can, do. Those who can’t do, teach. Those who can’t teach, teach gym.”) Even so, how do real people define leadership?

Since we didn’t know, we asked. Last week, on the streets of Berkeley, Costa Mesa, Danville, Huntington Beach, Los Angeles, Napa, Newport Beach, Oakland and San Francisco. (Yes, another Southwest Airlines week for me.) Not a terribly scientific sample, but fascinating nevertheless.

We asked one question: What’s it take to lead?

On a tangential note: When was the last time you tried to have a conversation with a stranger on the street? Not the easiest thing to do, as it turns out. Such paranoia! Such a need for privacy! I wasn’t asking for money, for a petition to be signed, for anything but to talk for a few minutes. Sadly, my ‘hit’ rate was only about 25%. Go figure.

So, what did we learn?

This Thing Called Leadership

Our sample of 75 teens, adults and seniors had a few choice things to say about leadership. When asked ‘What does it take to lead?’, we were told, in no uncertain terms:

• Courage. Internal strength, fortitude, with frequent references to three parts of the anatomy, one distinctly male (hint: backbone and guts were two; you know the third);

• Charisma. Because you have to get others to follow;

• A big idea. Something that you want to see accomplished;

• Responsibility. A belief that it’s up to you to get it done;

• A calling. Something that drives you, compels you to move to the front;

• Thick skin. Because you’re bound to upset some people, maybe a lot of people, along the way; and
  

• Stamina. Because nothing worthwhile happens quickly.

A rather insightful, opinionated group from 22 states and 9 foreign countries. (Ah, tourist season in California.)

In many ways, they’ve provided a useful shortcut to understanding leadership. It is about courage. It is about having an idea that you believe to be worthy. It is about you deciding to get it done. It is about being compelled to move to the front of the pack. It is about having a thick skin to weather the criticism and the stamina to see it through to fruition. And, of course, it is about having the wherewithal to motivate others to do what they didn’t think possible.

Not surprisingly, these behaviors are precisely what we teach in our leadership programs. Sure, we consider theories, research and case studies. But, more importantly, our focus goes beyond the academic and is on making participants in our programs look and act like leaders. Because getting something worthwhile done is what leadership is about. And there’s plenty of worthwhile things to get done in just about every organization on this planet.

A critical point here: Leadership is not theoretical, academic, or philosophical. Leadership is about getting something done, something others wouldn’t have thought possible. Leadership, therefore, is a set of behaviors. A set of complex behaviors, to be sure, but behaviors that are tangible and observable.

Leadership is also a set of emotions that help manifest the essential behaviors. In many ways, leadership is about connecting the 18 inches between the head and the heart and using both in tandem to get something meaningful done. (Thank you, again, Joey Loudermilk of Aflac fame, for this lasting and compelling image.)

If you have a few minutes – and all too little leadership in your organization – you might give us a call. We can show you how to change that situation. We can show you how to develop and hone the behaviors essential to effective leadership. You and your organization will reap the rewards for years to come.

In the meantime, we need leadership now. Wherever you are, whatever your job, it’s time to step up if you have an idea to help your organization or your country. There’s no shortage of need. There is, though, a terrible shortage of bold ideas to accelerate growth. And as we’ve seen all too clearly in these last few months, there are far too few people willing and able to assume that critical and essential leadership role.

It just might be your time. Or ours.

Try Not To Look

What a disappointing week.

Let's start with a story heard by few but one with enormous implications. Physicists at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology reported last week that time travel is, brace yourself, impossible. They have demonstrated that Einstein -- himself likely a time traveler from the future -- was right when he postulated that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. The research team, led by Du Shengwang, said they had proved that a single photon 'obeys the traffic law of the universe' by not being able to travel faster than light. As a result, they postulated, nothing or no one can move forward or backward in time.

Clearly, these physicists have not followed Star Trek, know nothing about the space-time continuum or, for that matter, the flux capacitor. And they've probably never driven a DeLorean.

Even so, I'm bummed. Because if there was ever a time period to leave and seek one better, it's this nightmare of a time we're slogging through now.

Our inability to travel through time -- except in our current forward motion, one-day-at-a-time manner -- wasn't the only disappointment of the week.

How about the performance of the 'leaders' of this great country of ours? (The term 'leaders' is used here incredibly loosely and, frankly, in a thoroughly mocking fashion.)

A good week for them and for us, no?

Oh, the things they did and the things we got! A new debt ceiling agreement that will cut rather than invest in our future. No new revenue. The need to cut more than $2 trillion from spending over the next 10 years. Absolutely no talk, much less a plan, to create jobs. And, if that wasn't enough, the first-ever downgrading of our debt from AAA to AA+ by Standard & Poor's, an event likely to have huge and far-reaching implications. Not to worry, though, as those effected by the downgrade will likely only be those who need a job, need companies to invest, need to borrow to buy a home or finance a business, have money tied up in the stock market, are thinking of retiring in this lifetime or, perhaps, breathe air.

(Yes, one firm downgrading our debt does not lead necessarily to higher borrowing rates. That takes two. But watch how the world reacts to the downgrading this week. It won't be pretty.)

And then there was the dreaded jobs report. Better-than-predicted growth, but a continuing lack of widespread hiring. An unemployment rate that dropped from 9.2 to 9.1. Millions still out of work -- and countless others opting to end their job search. But at least we have a new debt ceiling.

On another front, let's not overlook the fun Congress put the FAA through last week. Their political games caused 4,000 FAA employees to be put temporarily out of work, forced airport and airline safety inspectors to work without pay and fund their own travel, sidelined up to 70,000 construction workers and prevented the collection of airport fees totally $200 million per week. Like this is something we can afford. At least the FAA is now back to work. At least that.

After such a magnificent week, what did Congress then do? Yes! They went on vacation.

Actually, members of Congress going on vacation might have been the single best thing they could have done for the country. It's hard to destroy an economy, jeopardize air travel safety, and kill hopes for a job and retirement while tanning.

Ah, but Congress did pay a price, of sorts, for their inability to run the country anywhere but straight into the ground: A whopping 82% disapproval rate, as reported by The New York Times. The highest disapproval rating since The Times began asking the question in 1977.

Too bad that's the only consequence of their actions. Too bad someone can't change the locks on Congress -- and the White House, for that matter -- before everyone returns. A bit of unemployment for politicians might go a long way to creating some empathy, some sensitivity for what much of this country is experiencing. Too bad they'll eventually come back from vacation. Can't wait to see what they next have planned.

For weeks, we at TJOW have been bemoaning the lack of leadership in Washington. We have put forward plan after plan to employ millions. We've implored Washington to step up and do what is desperately needed: Create jobs. We have looked for even the smallest hint that our government would take bold action to lower the unemployment rate, to give people hope, to infuse the economy with an urgency and a purpose.

Sadly, we may have been aiming too high. Now, we wonder about the lack of empathy, the lack of sensitivity, the lack of concern for the plight of the vast majority of this country's population. We wonder if Congress and the White House are even aware of our daily existence. We wonder if they care.

So much for leadership. And too bad time travel is impossible.