NO WONDER IT HURTS SO MUCH

[Originally posted June 22, 2009 on the Huffington Post]

I stumbled into my 25^th Stanford Business School reunion over the weekend somewhat chagrined by the fact that my pockets are relatively empty a quarter of a century after I graduated from this august institution.  I expected to feel small relative to the corporate titans who were my former classmates as while many of these alums have experienced the “once in a lifetime” historic downturn that we’re all living through, few could match my misfortune of experiencing it twice in the same decade (as my Bay Area hotel company was pummeled in the dot-com bust, 9/11 era also).  But, I was surprised to discover that misery truly does love company as this collection of venture capitalists, investment bankers, high-tech execs, management consultants, non-profit leaders, and entrepreneurs had one thing in common.  Every one of them had a net worth at this reunion that was lower than it was at the 20^th reunion five years earlier and many of these folks had come back out of early retirement due to financial necessity.

One of my favorite panel discussions was a “View from the Bottom” (in each of the past reunions, this panel had been called “View from the Top”) where we learned that this past decade has been more severe than even the 1930’s.  Professor Jack McDonald told us that in the 1930’s (after the big drop in stock prices in late 1929), the stock market showed basically flat growth (although lots of up and down swings) along with an average of 2% annual deflation, so there was 2% real growth in the stock market during that time.  Given the wreckage we associate with the Depression, this was a bit of a shock to me.  Yet, in the past ten years from January 1999 to January 2009, we’ve experienced a 3% average annual drop in the stock market and have had 3% annual inflation along the way which registers a 6% negative net growth for the decade.  So, when we say “at least it’s not as bad as the Depression,” there’s certainly truth to that when it comes to unemployment and soup kitchen lines, but for those whose nest egg has shrunk 6% annually in real terms as compared to 2% growth in the 30’s, it’s understandable why you’re feeling a little blue.

And, this is for the monied class.  Think about what the average middle class family has faced in the past 30 years in order to try and assure that their income was keeping up with their expenditures.  Many families became two income households in order to pay the bills.  Then, they started working longer hours, or, at least commuting longer distances because they could only afford a home further out in the sticks.  Then, they mortgaged their home up to the hilt (or maxed out their credit cards) in order to keep the bill collectors at bay.  Financial engineering isn’t just a Wall Street phenomenon as the CFO of any middle class family will tell you that their balance sheet has been sorely out of balance for years, especially when you factor in the scarcity of time in our lives.  Henry David Thoreau once wrote, “The cost of something is measured by how much life you have to give for it.”  Based on this premise, our modern lives are very, very expensive!

So, I left my Stanford reunion feeling a surprising dose of gratitude.  I didn’t feel “lesser than” like I thought I would and I felt “at one with” so many of my humbled classmates.  One of my classmates who has worked with the same investment banking firm for decades pulled me aside at one of the luncheons.  He said he needed to have a private moment with me, so we ducked behind a potted palm and he whispered in the kind of tones one uses when talking about infidelity or a curiosity with Viagra.  He said, “I made a bundle and lost half of it.  For a few months, I felt like half a man.  Then, I read your book PEAK and realized that you have a different ‘scorecard’ for success.  I love that the name of your company is also your mission statement and your strategic goal for what you produce: joy.  Now, I realize how far off my path I am.  I realize I’ve been climbing the wrong ‘peak.’” 

The world is chaotic and unfair.  And, certainly, it isn’t controllable.  One thing you can control is your definition of your scorecard.  Just as my grandpa Potka told me years ago when, as a young teenager, I threw a tantrum on the golf course because I was hitting divots further than golf balls, “When you’re having a bad golfing day, stop counting your strokes and start counting squirrels, or how many different cloud formations you see in the sky, or how many times you’ve made your grandpa smile with one of your silly jokes.”  What scorecard are you using to define success in your life?

Add comment June 23rd, 2009

THE BEST $73 I EVER SPENT

[Originally posted June 4, 2009 on The Huffington Post]

Close your eyes for a moment and consider the collection of bosses you’ve had since you joined the workforce.  I remember my first boss, Mac, when I suffered through six week at the fries and shake work station of McDonald’s.  He helped me understand that “boss” was a four-letter word and spelled backward it’s what I felt like doing when I came home from work each day (SOB also defines how I described Mac to my friends).  But, I also remember Larry Keating, who mentored me with great patience and wisdom in my summer internship between college and business school.  Larry helped me realize I had more ability than I thought I did so I could accomplish more than I thought I would.  He helped me realize I could jump much higher than I ever imagined.

My hotel company, Joie de Vivre, has a more than ten-year tradition of celebrating “Employee Recognition Week” just as we’re going into our busy summer season.  We started this tradition as a means of helping our maids, bellmen, bartenders, and managers realize that we truly appreciated how much life they gave to our enterprise.  While we initially were thrifty with our expenditures during this week by just having a companywide BBQ, with time our generosity grew such that we were offering employees the opportunity for their families to go to local theme parks or for cruises on the San Francisco Bay or tickets to see the SF Giants or Oakland A’s.  More recently, we spent nearly $100,000 on these various recognition week activities which may sound lavish, but when you realize that this is only about $35 per employee (or about $1 per hour that each of our employees worked that week), you come to realize that the good feelings about our company culture that are generated from these activities are probably worth it.  Heck, you could spend $100,000 in legal fees in California just settling one wrongful termination suit of an employee who didn’t feel properly recognized.

While employee recognition week may be a wise investment, this year we don’t have the cash to invest so we’ve had to make substantial cutbacks in some of the more expensive activities.  Sound familiar?  Does that mean we can’t recognize our people?  Why don’t we go back to the roots of what recognition means?  Compensation is a right, but recognition is a gift.  What gift could I give my staff that would be as meaningful as what Larry Keating gave me that summer 27 years ago?  Yesterday, I decided to write each of the 80 people who work in our headquarters a handwritten, heart-felt thank you card.  For less than a dollar per card and about six hours of my time, I could give the ultimate gift that we all are looking for.  Cancel your round of golf this weekend and plant your self in your favorite chair watching the NBA finals and pen some thankful prose to those who work for you.  As William James once wrote, “The deepest hunger in humans is the desire to be appreciated.”  I don’t know about you, but I’ve saved cards that old high school flames wrote me as well as those that employees have written me over the years.  The power of genuine, customized appreciation will never lose its value, even in a gloomy economy….in fact, it’s probably what we’re all thirsty for in this desert of a depression.

The Gallup organization found that the single most important variable in employee productivity and loyalty is not the pay, the perks, or the benefits.  It’s the quality of the relationship between employees and their supervisors.  Isn’t it ironic that pay, perks, and benefits all cost your company at the bottom line, but authentic recognition, especially when it’s most unexpected, costs very little and gives the most impressive return on investment.  I believe the $73 I spent on those cards was the best investment I’ll make in 2009!

Add comment June 4th, 2009