The Corner Office

In 2003 I announced my retirement from the corporate world. Not to anybody in particular, since nobody really cared. That is except for my wife, who cared very much that I was about to invade her space at home like a horde of marauding Huns.

I was only 46, but after 23 years in high-tech, including 10 as a senior executive and millions of air miles, I felt completely exhausted. I needed a break. A long, long break.

But my retirement wasn’t my father’s retirement. Within a year I had a consulting firm. A few years later I started blogging for CNET. Then came a book project and a new blog with BNET. Whenever I get a new consulting project my brain lights up like it’s on fire and I’m suddenly full of energy.

I used to wonder what I was smoking when I dreamed up this idiotic kind of retirement - working my tail off just as I did before. Then I remember I didn’t actually dream it up, it just sort of happened.

I think about the financial crisis, the haircut our investments and home valuation have taken, the uncertainty and almost certain inflation ahead. And I can’t believe I had the foresight to stay engaged the way I did. Except it wasn’t foresight, just dumb luck. 

I see truly retired people giving blood at the Red Cross or taking their daily walks on the rural road where I live and work. They go on vacations, take up kayaking and yoga. It sounds great … for them. But it’s not for me.

I have a retired business friend named Phil. Phil has a lot more money than I have. He has three homes, including one in Paris. He once told me there are two reasons why people don’t retire and they’re both tragic: either they can’t afford to, or they have no other interests but work. Maybe Phil’s right, but when a friend recently called us both to get involved in his new startup, Phil’s neurons seemed to light up just as mine did. And yes, he bit.

At this point, I’m still only 52, and I have no idea how long I’ll go on like this. But I’m having a good time and besides, my wife loves it when I get out of the house and she has it all to herself, like the old days. So I guess, and this is definitely subject to change, I’ll retire when I can’t do what I love doing anymore, or when there’s no market for it. Will I feel sad or fulfilled at that point? Your guess is as good as mine.

Quick, by a show of hands, how many of you have workplace stress? Almost everybody, great. Now, how much of that stress do you think is self-imposed? What, no hands? Well, I’m not surprised, but you may be in for one.

You see, most people make their own stress. Why do they do it? How should I know? I’m not a shrink. So how do I know it’s true? I don’t; you tell me if any of these 7 Signs You’re Creating Your Own Workplace Stress resonate with you:

1. Not making enough money? Join the club. Nobody, I mean nobody makes enough money. Work hard, be smart, do great things, learn how to negotiate, and the money will come. That’s how it works.
2. Underappreciated, nobody loves you? Boss treats your co-worker better than you? Did you ever think maybe it’s you? Maybe you’re always whining. Maybe you treat them like crap. Maybe you never grew up. Who knows? 
3. Your group gets no respect. IT is always getting dumped on. Sales and marketing has it easy. Guess what? The other group probably feels the same way. It’s called Silo behavior and it’s destructive, period. Grow up.
4. You have a psycho boss? An abusive self-hating jerk who acts out his childhood drama on poor unsuspecting employees. That sucks, but the unemployment rate is 9.5 percent, so you don’t get to pick your boss. Fighting battles you can’t win generates stress.
5. Too much work, too little time. This is usually self-imposed. Are you sure your deadlines are real and not just you feeling self-important, pushing yourself too hard because you haven’t got a life outside work? Slow down; what’s the worst that can happen?
6. Peer problems. There’s a coworker you just don’t get along with and it’s really stressful, right? Well, guess what? I’ll bet she feels the same way about you. It happens to everybody. Try a little detente. Offer an olive branch. Swallow your pride and give in. It won’t kill you.
7. Executive management doesn’t listen or care. Did it ever occur to you that executive managers are people too? They have their own issues and they’re not perfect. Some companies are well managed, some are managed by idiots. On the outside chance they’re not idiots, did you ever think that maybe, just maybe they know more than you do?   

If you think this post oversimplifies things, think again. You may be overcomplicating things. 

Try a little experiment: If you experience an issue or two and it changes when you jump companies or groups, then you were probably in a dysfunctional workplace. Welcome to the real world. Don’t whine and complain. Don’t give in and don’t give up. Be optimistic. Continue your search for a passionate, fulfilling job at a great company. You’ll find it.

But if it doesn’t change, if it’s always the same, then it’s probably you. You might want to see somebody about that.

The good news is I’m still alive and well and finally going Mac after 20 years of Wintel oppression. Aside from that, the only positive thing I can think of to say is the second half has got to be better.

The 2009 Halftime Report: 10 Random Impressions

1. Calling it an insane year would be a ludicrous understatement; but you and I are still standing, at least for now. It could be worse - check out this Business Pundit post Nightmare Layoff, the Singapore way.
2. Have you seen any signs of all the spent stimulus money? I haven’t. But I have seen an excellent solar company acquired in a fire sale. Isn’t alternative energy supposed to be a priority?
3. We built a new house at the peak of the housing bubble, so it’s probably worth about half what we paid to build it. That’s okay as long as my wife doesn’t divorce me. 
4. It’s finally happened: there are too many things to worry about to actually worry. Inflation, income, California’s economy, America’s economy, the value of my house, Cap and Trade and my skyrocketing energy bill, what’s going to happen to my health care? My limbic system is officially overwhelmed. Read the rest of this entry »
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What is it about the human condition that makes us excuse-making machines?

When my dog does something wrong, he tucks his tail between his legs and hangs his head in admission of guilt. No excuses. When a wild animal screws up, the result can be fatal. Excuses don’t count in the animal kingdom. 

But humans are another story. We’re more evolved than that. Great.

The more varied and creative our excuses get, the more they all start to sound vaguely like “the dog ate my homework.”

Great managers and successful business leaders don’t make excuses. Nothing is more success and career limiting. Nothing. The reason is that top executives intuitively look for people who are willing to take personal responsibility, own a problem, and be held accountable over the long haul, regardless of the risk. Customers look for the same thing.

Willingness to take it on the chin without pointing fingers and wasting time on CYA activity is a sign of maturity, a sign of someone who employees, shareholders, and customers can trust to get the job done right.

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As crimes go, we don’t usually think of fraud in the same way we think of violent crimes like murder and rape. But one of Bernard Madoff’s victims sees it differently.

In a statement to Judge Denny Chin, former Fort Lee N.J. mayor Burt Ross, who lost $5 million in the scam, wrote, “Seven hundred years ago, the Italian poet Dante in The Divine Comedy recognized fraud as the worst of sins, the ultimate evil.”

Speaking outside the courtroom, Ross further expounded on his Dante reference: Read the rest of this entry »

The Corner Office’s most popular post - How to Give a Killer Presentation - said it best:

It’s hard to imagine your career going anywhere unless you can deliver an effective presentation. Unfortunately, most of us are born without the presentation gene. I have no idea why, but for most professionals, presenting is a real struggle.

They stand there, like they’re glued to the floor, with their 90-slide presentation with a dozen bullets and sub-bullets and a book of text on each slide. Then they complain that executives and salespeople make all the money.

For better or worse, most companies use PowerPoint, and in my experience, most managers and executives have no idea how to use effectively. It’s just as important as present skills, and if you follow these tips, you’ll wow your audience instead of confusing and boring them: Read the rest of this entry »

It’s an age-old question. It’s easy to say that companies need to do both, but there are times when one - strategy or execution - is more critical than the other is. Knowing which one to focus on is the key. Here are a few examples of how it works … and doesn’t work.

When HP hired Carly Fiorina to take the company forward, they truly believed the company needed a bold new direction and new strategy to get there. They thought the company had lost its way and needed a “rock star” leader to show the company “the path.”

They couldn’t have been more wrong. Seven years later Fiorina was out and new CEO Mark Hurd had managed to pull off one of the most effective turnarounds in corporate history. Sure there was some strategy, but he did it primarily with basic management blocking and tackling.

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Here we go again. As I explained back in January in Did Apple Break SEC Disclosure Rules Re: Steve Jobs’s Health?:

According to the SEC’s Regulation Fair Disclosure, better known to all concerned as Reg FD, public companies are required to disclose “material information” to all investors simultaneously. The idea behind Reg FD - enacted in 2000 - was to limit insider trading that occurred because of selective disclosure.

What that means is this: if you’re going to disclose “material information” about a security, then you must disclose it simultaneously to the entire investment community at once, typically in a press release, conference call, or on a corporate website.

The definition of “material information” is somewhat subjective, but it’s essentially anything that investors would likely find important in making investment decisions regarding that security. 

Now here’s the rub. While Canadian rules call for “immediate” disclosure of material information, Reg FD makes no mention of timetables, except when selective disclosure has already occurred, in which case companies have to remedy the situation “promptly,” if the disclosure was unintentional, or “simultaneously,” if intentional. 

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Let’s face it: monopolies don’t last forever and it’s not always the government that puts an end to the ride; sometimes competitive forces do the job they’re supposed to do. Well, I think we’re at an inflection point with respect to Microsoft’s effective monopoly on personal computing software.

Just to be clear, I’m not just talking about Windows market share of PCs, but Wintel (the Microsoft - Intel duopoly) PC market share of the ever-growing number of devices used to compute, communicate, game, learn, network, browse, anything that can access the Internet. 

I know that seems convoluted, so here’s another way of looking at it. If there was a metric for the amount of time people spend on all devices that can access the Web, I think you’d find that the percentage of time they spend using Microsoft software is already declining.  

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My dog loves to lick out my cappuccino cup when I’m done. She sits around waiting for me to finish. It makes her day. Seriously. We buy her toys to play with, which she instantly buries or tears the stuffing out of, then runs around for weeks playing with an old 2×4 or a pine cone she finds lying around.

Yesterday I showed up at a client company for an executive strategy meeting, only to find the CEO and his top staff feverishly editing slides for today’s board of directors meeting. I dove in and helped them out, including some sticky Powerpoint formatting. It was no big deal, but at the end of the day, the CEO - a former boss and long-time client - was so thankful and relieved that he hugged me.

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